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Time since childbirth and prognosis in primary breast cancer: population based study

Abstract Objective: To investigate whether time since birth of last child was of prognostic importance in women with primary breast cancer. Design: Retrospective cohort study based on a population based database of breast cancer diagnoses with detailed information on tumour characteristics, treatment regimens, reproductive factors, and vital status. Setting: Denmark. Subjects: 5652 women with primary breast cancer aged 45 years or less at the time of diagnosis. Main outcome measures: 5 and 10 year survival; relative risk of dying. Results: Women diagnosed in the first 2 years after last childbirth had a crude 5 year survival of 58.7% and 10 year survival of 46.1% compared with 78.4% and 66.0% for women whose last childbirth was more than 2 years before their diagnosis. After adjustment for age, reproductive factors, and stage of disease (tumour size, axillary nodal status, and histological grading), a diagnosis sooner than 2 years since last childbirth was significantly associated with a poor survival (relative risk 1.58, 95% confidence interval 1.24 to 2.02) compared with women who gave birth more than 5 years previously. Further analyses showed that the effect was not modified by age at diagnosis, tumour size, and nodal status. Conclusion: A diagnosis of breast cancer less than 2 years after having given birth is associated with a particularly poor survival irrespective of the stage of disease at debut. Therefore, a recent pregnancy should be regarded as a negative prognostic factor and should be considered in counselling these patients and in the decisions regarding adjuvant treatment. Key messages A childbirth close to subsequent diagnosis of breast cancer has a negative effect on the woman's cancer prognosis The negative effect of recent childbirth is not affected by age at diagnosis, nodal status, and tumour size The negative effect is found both in patients who receive adjuvant treatment and those who do not Childbirth history should be taken into account when counselling young women with breast cancer