SABCS: Positive Outcomes Seen When Pausing Endocrine Therapy to Become Pregnant

THURSDAY, Dec. 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Among patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer who paused endocrine therapy (ET) to become pregnant, fertility preservation and/or assisted reproductive technologies (ART) do not adversely affect three-year cancer recurrence rates, according to a study presented at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held from Dec. 5 to 9 in San Antonio.

Hatem A. Azim Jr., M.D., Ph.D., from the School of Medicine and Breast Cancer Center at the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Cordoba, Mexico, and colleagues conducted a secondary analysis of an international, single-arm, prospective trial that enrolled patients aged 42 years and younger with stage 2 to 3 hormone receptor-positive breast cancer who had received 18 to 30 months of ET and paused ET to become pregnant.

The researchers found that 74 percent of the 497 patients reported at least one pregnancy. Young age was the only factor associated with shorter time to pregnancy in a multivariable model. At diagnosis and prior to enrollment, 36.0 percent of the patients had undergone ovarian stimulation for embryo/oocyte cryopreservation, of whom 37.9 percent reported cryopreserved embryo transfer after enrollment. Overall, 43.3 percent of the patients reported using ART after enrollment, including ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (37.2 percent). The only ART independently associated with a higher chance of pregnancy was cryopreserved embryo transfer (odds ratio, 2.41) in a multivariable model. At three years, the cumulative incidence of breast cancer-free interval events was similar for those who underwent ovarian stimulation for cryopreservation at diagnosis and before enrollment and for those who did not (9.7 versus 8.7 percent).

"Participants who underwent cryopreserved embryo transfer during the study had higher pregnancy rates with no apparent short-term detrimental impact on breast cancer outcome," Azim said in a statement.

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