SURVEY OF CURRENT OPINIONS CONCERNING CARCINOMA OF THE BREAST OCCURRING DURING PREGNANCY

Abstract

IT IS WELL recognized that carcinoma of the breast occurring in pregnancy has an unfavorable outlook. In fact, the results of treatment in the original series of cases studied by Haagensen and Stout at the Presbyterian Hospital, in 1943, were so uniformly discouraging as to cause them to conclude that radical mastectomy was unjustifiable in this group.¹ Although subsequent studies have led them to modify this point of view and to advise operations for pregnant women in whom the growth is not otherwise "categorically" inoperable, they have not yet encountered a "curable" case.² In an attempt to determine if the experiences of others with this problem was more favorable, a questionnaire was submitted to 55 persons who have been especially concerned with the problem of mammary cancers. Since my colleagues and I were interested not only in the results of treatment by radical mastectomy but also in the