ArticleBMJ open2018
Pregnancy-associated cancers and birth outcomes in children: a Danish and Swedish population-based register study.
Article in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Perinatal outcomes for infants exposed to systemic cancer treatment during gestation: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Cancer and Pregnancy: Update of Estimates in Italy by Linking Data from Cancer Registries and Hospital Discharge Records.Cancers · 2025Article
- Prenatal cell-free DNA testing of women with pregnancy-associated cancer: a retrospective cross-sectional study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2024Article
- Pregnancy-Associated Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2024Review
- Cancer during pregnancy: Twenty-two years of experience from a tertiary referral center.Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2024Article
- Neonatal outcomes and follow-up of children born to women with pregnancy-associated cancer: a prospective observational study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Observational
- Article
- Pregnancy associated cancer, timing of birth and clinical decision making-a NSW data linkage study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Observational
- Bilateral primary breast Burkitt's lymphoma in pregnancy.BMJ case reports · 2023Article
- Obstetric and neonatal outcomes in women with pregnancy associated cancer: a population-based study in Lombardy, Northern Italy.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2021Article
- Gestational breast cancer in New South Wales: A population-based linkage study of incidence, management, and outcomes.PloS one · 2021Article
- Can postfertile life stages evolve as an anticancer mechanism?PLoS biology · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThis study aims to estimate the association between pregnancy-associated maternal cancers, diagnosed both prenatally and postnatally, and birth outcomes.
designPopulation-based register study.
settingNational registers of Denmark and Sweden.
participantsA total of 5 523 365 children born in Denmark (1977-2008) and Sweden (1973-2006).Primary and secondary outcome measures: gestational age, birth weight, size for gestational age, Apgar score, caesarean section and sex were the outcomes of interest. ORs and relative risk ratios (RRR) with 95% CIs were estimated using logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression, respectively.
resultsIn this study, 2% of children were born to mothers with a diagnosis of cancer. Children whose mothers received a prenatal cancer diagnosis had higher risk of being born preterm (RRR: 1.77, 95% CI 1.64 to 1.90); low birth weight (RRR 1.84, 95% CI 1.69 to 2.01); low Apgar score (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.20 to 1.56); and by caesarean section (OR: 1.69, 95% CI 1.59 to 1.80). Associations moved towards the null for analyses using postnatal diagnoses, but preterm birth (RRR: 1.13, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.17) and low birth weight (RRR: 1.14, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.18) remained statistically significant, while risk of caesarean section became so (OR: 0.95, 95% CI 0.91 to 0.98). Additionally, statistical significance was reached for large for gestational age (RRR: 1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.11), high birth weight (RRR: 1.04, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.06) and caesarean section (OR: 0.95, 95% CI 0.91 to 0.98).
conclusionsResults suggest an association between pregnancy-associated cancers and adverse birth outcomes in the offspring. While this is strongest for prenatally diagnosed cancers, some smaller associations exist for postnatally diagnosed cancers, indicating that cancer itself could affect fetal development, or that cancer and adverse birth outcomes share risk factors. Future studies on maternal cancer during pregnancy should consider including some postnatal years in their exposure window.
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