Systemic Therapy For Lymphoma Shows Promising Results After First Trimester

A new retrospective study claims that systemic therapy for women after the first trimester resulted in positive maternal and fetal outcomes, according to a new study published in JAMA Oncology.

The study examined women who were diagnosed and treated for non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma during pregnancy and received systemic therapy after 12 weeks.

“The diagnosis of lymphoma during pregnancy poses management challenges requiring consideration of the fetus without compromising potentially curative therapy for the mother,” said Chelsea Pinnix, PhD, regarding the study. “In this series, the decision to defer therapy until after delivery did not affect maternal outcomes.”

Systemic therapies

During the study nearly 40 pregnant women with a median age of 28 were examined. Just over 82 percent of them had stage I or II of the disease, and 24 elected to undergo treatment after the first trimester. Researchers noted that the decision to wait until after 12 weeks was due to potential complications to both mother and child if treatments were administered during the first trimester.

The children were born at a median of 37 weeks, and there were no reports of difference in time of delivery between females who underwent systemic therapy and those who waited to receive treatment until post-delivery.

Researchers also noted that abnormalities or defects were not present in the children of mothers who received systemic therapies. The results could lead to health professionals recommending the treatments instead of risking preterm deliveries.

“Preterm delivery, and not fetal chemotherapy exposure, has been shown to be the most strongly predictive of neurocognitive impairment,” the researchers wrote. “Thus, an important goal should be prolonging the pregnancy so as to avoid preterm birth.”

Source: Cancer Network