Management of Pregnancy-Associated Breast Cancer (Podcast)

Pregnancy-associated breast cancer is defined as breast cancer diagnosed during pregnancy and after one year after pregnancy. This represents
roughly one in 3,000 pregnancies.

In a recent episode of Cleveland Clinic's Cancer Advances podcast, Erin Roesch, MD, Breast Medical Oncologist discussed:

Supporting patients through diagnosis, therapy and recovery
How a multidisciplinary team approach helps optimize treatment timing, ensures maternal and fetal safety
Managing side effects during pregnancy and chemotherapy
Addressing breast feeding during and after treatment

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Click the podcast player above to listen to the episode now.

Podcast excerpt:

Podcast host Dr. Shepard: I'm guessing that managing the complexity of having a breast cancer, coupled with pregnancy, must take a big team. We're going to talk about multidisciplinary care. What does that look like?

Dr. Roesch: Multidisciplinary are includes multiple team members - medical oncologists, breast surgeons, radiation oncologists, genetic counselors, social workers, psychologists, obstetricians, gynecologists and sometimes reproductive providers.

Dr. Shepard: Are there things over time we've learned to do really well?
Where do we need to make improvements?

Dr. Roesch: In terms of some of the psychosocial aspects, we're striving to make improvements and gain a better understanding of the needs of this
population beyond chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.

It's about having a better understanding of this patient population. Many of these patients may be interested in future pregnancies, so engaging
reproductive endocrinology early on to discuss oncogertility, providing
access to psychologists and social workers, so they're aware that they
have a full team of support. That's an area where continuous improvement
could be made.

And in terms of advances in cancer treatment, how do those advances impact
these patients, whether it's in the systemic therapy realm or in surgical
techniques. There's a lot of room to grow.