Pregnancy and Cancer

Occurrence of lymphoma in non-gonadal organ during pregnancy: a report on four cases and literature review

Lymphoma rarely occurs during pregnancy, making this condition difficult to define. Lymphomas that occur in reproductive organs during pregnancy exhibit unique clinical characteristics. Among the limited cases, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) shows a considerably higher incidence rate than Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL); NHL also displays clinical characteristics, such as high aggressiveness, advanced stage, and poor outcome. This study reports on four cases of lymphomas in non-gonadal organs (HL, n=2; NHL, n=2) during pregnancy. The tumors rapidly progressed in all patients during pregnancy but remitted at the end of pregnancy and/or therapy. The two HL cases were nodular sclerosis classical HL and treated with chemotherapy after terminating the pregnancy. One of the NHL cases was primary cutaneous follicular center lymphoma, a B cell-derived indolent lymphoma. The patient was followed up without any therapy after terminating her pregnancy. The other case was a follicular lymphoma grade 3B, which was treated with chemotherapy after delivery. We also conducted a literature review of 165 lymphoma cases occurring during pregnancy reported from 1976 to 2013 to reveal the correlation between pregnancy and lymphoma progression. Immunohistochemistry studies were performed to determine the expression of estrogen/progesterone receptors (ER/PR), and ER was weakly positive and sporadic. We concluded that lymphomas occurring during pregnancy should be managed with a prompt and reasonable treatment. High estrogen level in maternal body may affect lymphoma progression.

Epilepsy meets cancer: when, why, and what to do about it?

The lifetime risk of having epileptic seizures is profoundly increased in patients with cancer: about 20% of all patients with systemic cancer may develop brain metastases. These patients and those with primary brain tumours have a lifetime risk of epilepsy of 20-80%. Moreover, exposure to chemotherapy or radiotherapy to the brain, cancer-related metabolic disturbances, stroke, and infection can provoke seizures. The management of epilepsy in patients with cancer includes diagnosis and treatment of the underlying cerebral pathological changes, secondary prophylaxis with antiepileptic drugs, and limiting of the effect of epilepsy and its treatment on the efficacy and tolerability of anticancer treatments, cognitive function, and quality of life. Because of the concern of drug-drug interactions, the pharmacological approach to epilepsy requires a multidisciplinary approach, specifically in a setting of rapidly increasing choices of agents both to treat cancer and cancer-associated epilepsy.