Breast cancer, placenta and pregnancy

Breast cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed malignancies during pregnancy. Tumours often present characteristics of high malignancy and are hormone receptor negative/HER2 positive or triple negative. In general, pregnancy, including the postpartum period, is associated with a transiently increased risk of developing breast cancer  but followed by a long-lasting protective period. Placental metastases are very rare and, thus far, breast cancer metastases in the foetal compartment have not been described.
Source: European Journal of Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Review Source Type: research