Any cancer found during pregnancy causes great concern, with possible damage to the foetus and mother being the main worry, although change in the progression of disease due to altered immunology also is a factor.
Fortunately, ovarian cancer is not common during pregnancy. This article looks at the available information with respect to maternal and foetal outcomes.
About 1% of all pregnancies have an incidental finding of an adnexal mass. This is more often found now that ultrasound examination is part of the normal standard of care. There is a very low incidence of these masses being found to be malignant (0.2 -3/100,000). Of the malignant masses, three quarters are due to borderline tumours and one quarter invasive ovarian cancer usually epithelial.
Using the INCIP database 129 women were identified as having ovarian cancer discovered prior to childbirth. About half had invasive cancer the others, borderline tumours. 64% of these women had standard care with resection and chemo, the others had treatment deferred.
Birth weights of infants whose mother had received chemo were significantly reduced. Women who had standard treatment for ovarian cancer had better survival. Most cancers were early-stage, overall survival of 80% at 5 years was good. The numbers of cases are small but support active treatment of ovarian cancer during pregnancy.
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