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"These data don't say that chemotherapy is completely safe, but the baby is better off being in (the mother) as long as possible," she said. Nelson-Piercy was not linked to the Lancet series and often works with pregnant women diagnosed with cancer or other illnesses.
Dr. Richard Theriault, a professor of medicine at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, said he hoped the papers would change how doctors treat pregnant cancer patients.
"Terminating a pregnancy is not always necessary," said Theriault, who heads a program to treat pregnant women with cancer. He said a minority of pregnant women with cancer still get abortions.
He said the placenta seems to act as a kind of filter for chemotherapy drugs, restricting their effects on the fetus. "There's the phenomenon of the bald mother who gives birth to a baby with a full head of hair," he said. "It seems to suggest not as much gets to the baby as we thought."
That was certainly Caroline Swain's experience, who was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant with her second son. She had her left breast and many lymph nodes removed and had to wait until her fetus was 12 weeks old before starting chemotherapy.
"I was just so grateful it was possible to have treatment and keep my baby," said Swain, 45, who lives near London. "I was scared that my child wouldn't remember me if something happened to me."
Her son Luke, now 9, weighed in at 7.4 pounds (3.35 kilograms) when he was born, only slightly lighter than his older brother Max a year earlier.
"We had celebrations all around when Luke came out absolutely fine," Swain said of her and her husband Rowland's relief at the birth. "Luke is no different from his brother," she said. "They both love Legos and X-Box."
[Associated
Press;
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