Women in the United States do not appear to be delaying pregnancy after a diagnosis of melanoma, despite general recommendations to wait at least 2 years to attempt pregnancy because it might increase the risk of recurrence or exacerbate disease, investigators reported in the Journal of Surgical Research.
A review of records from a large national health care database showed that women aged 18-40 years with melanoma who were not pregnant on the index date had a significantly higher rate of pregnancy within 2 years, compared with matched controls, reported Julie A. DiSano, MD, from Penn State University, Hershey.
“These results suggest that a diagnosis of melanoma may serve as an impetus for some families to begin childbearing or have additional children sooner than they otherwise would have,” they wrote.
The investigators also found, reassuringly, that women who became pregnant after a melanoma diagnosis were not at increased risk for requiring additional therapy for the malignancy, at least in the short term.
Although earlier studies suggested that women who were pregnant at the time of a melanoma diagnosis had worse prognoses when compared with women who were not pregnant at the time of diagnosis, more recent studies have indicated women who are pregnant when diagnosed have similar outcomes as nonpregnant women with the same disease stage, the investigators noted.
“What is unclear and difficult to study is the relationship between melanoma and subsequent pregnancy rates, and pregnancy on melanoma outcomes. Very little data exist to guide women and physicians as to the safety of pregnancy after a diagnosis of melanoma. As a result, there are no formal guidelines for physicians who wish to counsel their patients regarding pregnancy after melanoma, and it is unknown whether women receive any counseling at all,” they wrote.
To get a clearer picture of the link between melanoma and subsequent pregnancy, the investigators scanned the Truven Health MarketScan database and identified 11,801 women from 18-40 years with melanoma who were not pregnant on the index date, determined by the earliest claim for melanoma diagnosis or therapy.
Each patient was matched on a 1:1 basis with women who did not have a melanoma claim at any time; cases were matched with controls on the basis of year of index date, age at index date, state of residence, and pregnancy status in the 90 days before the index date.
The authors found that the rate of pregnancy within 2 years of the index date was 15.8% for cases, compared with 13.6% for controls (P less than .001).
They also found, however, that women who required postsurgical therapy, suggesting more advanced disease stage or early recurrence, had a significantly lower probability of becoming pregnant within the first 9 months after the index date (hazard ratio, 0.26; P = .003).
There were no significant differences in the rate of postsurgical treatment by pregnancy status at either 3, 6, 9, or 12 months after surgery (P less than .05 for each), or in a Cox regression model for all time points (HR, 0.68, P = .23).