Amy Bianchi with her newborn son Brayden, his father Christopher and sister Mia of Albany, New York on August 9, 2018 at the Bellevue Woman’s Center in Niskayuna, New York.
Courtesy of Amy Bianchi via AP
Young women diagnosed with breast cancer often have to delay pregnancy for years while taking hormone-blocking pills.
A reassuring new study finds you can take a two-year break from these drugs to conceive without increasing your short-term risk of cancer recurrence.
“This is really good news for young women, their doctors and their families,” said Dr. Ann Partridge of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who led the study. The results were discussed Thursday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Although breast cancer is more common in older women, it is increasingly being diagnosed during childbearing years for reasons that are unclear.
For patients whose cancer is fueled by hormones, treatment involves surgery, then five to 10 years of either a hormone-blocking drug, which can cause birth defects, or newer drugs called aromatase inhibitors, and a monthly injection to shut off the ovaries.
Amy Bianchi of Albany, New York on August 7, 2018 days before she gave birth to her son Brayden in Schenectady, New York.
Courtesy of Amy Bianchi via AP
Partridge estimates that 6,000 women in the US each year want to conceive but have to take hormone-blocking drugs.
“They don’t want to hear about breast cancer anymore, but they don’t want to put their lives on hold either,” she said.
The study followed 516 women after early-stage cancer surgery. All then spent at least 18 months taking hormone-blocking drugs. The women stopped taking hormone blockers for up to two years to conceive, give birth, and breastfeed. Then they started cancer therapy again.
After three years, about 9% of the cancers regressed, similar to a group of similar women in a separate study who continued to take hormone-blocking therapy. There were nine deaths, “below expectations for this demographic,” Partridge said.
More than 300 babies were born to women in the study. Among them was Brayden, now 4, the son of Amy Bianchi.
Amy Bianchi of Albany, New York, with her son Brayden October 8 at his grandmother’s home in Niskayuna, New York.
Courtesy of Amy Bianchi via AP
“He’s perfect in every way,” said Bianchi. “I couldn’t imagine my life without him. We couldn’t imagine our family without him.”
Bianchi felt a lump that turned out to be breast cancer when her firstborn, Mia, was 18 months old. Doctors advised against another pregnancy, but she found out about the research and signed up.
“Had I listened to the first few doctors or oncologists I spoke to, I would have lost all hope,” said Bianchi, 42, of Niskayuna, New York. “I would have accepted very quickly that I would never have the family I envisioned.”
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She was able to breastfeed her son for six months before resuming hormone-blocking therapy, which she will continue through 2026.
The researchers will follow Bianchi and the other study participants and report on the longer-term safety.
“Will we see a difference after 10 years?” asked dr Hope Rugo from the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. “Right now, this is incredibly encouraging data. It should give doctors and patients confidence” as they discuss how to benefit from cancer therapy while raising a family.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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