• Question: if you are pregnant, and then you get cancer, the baby dies or you can safe it?

    Asked by isita3012 to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 16 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      Cancer is usually rare during pregnancy but it can happen. Usually, the baby is perfectly safe but in extremely rare cases, it is possible for cancerous cells to cross the placenta and cause cancer in the foetus. But, this really is exceptionally rare.

    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      Hi isita,

      The problem is not so much the cancer itsself, as Clare pointed out. The question is more about the side effects of cancer therapy. Chemotherapy can harm the baby. However, if the mother does not receive treatment, she suffers from the cancer. That is the principle dilemma- what is good for the mother, is bad for the baby and the other way around.

      Not a nice choice. But I heard they can work it out in some cases.

    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      There are doctors who are experts in this. It’s all they do at work. If you’re pregnant you need different drugs, and the risks are different, so they send you to the most expert doctors possible.

      In the old days or in places where there aren’t good doctors, the mother could die, and that would kill the baby too. We’re lucky we have such excellent medicine her and now.

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