Young breast cancer sufferers need more fertility advice before treatment

According to new research led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, 25% of young breast cancer sufferers say that there was no discussion of fertility issues at the time of diagnosis, despite the possibility of infertility after treatment.

Belinda Thewes, a UNSW PhD candidate in the Faculty of Medicine, says timing is everything in these cases, and such women need more information when they are diagnosed, about the effect that treatment could have on their fertility, in order that they can take appropriate steps to preserve it.

The study says that breast cancer in women who are childless at diagnosis, is becoming more common, with 10,000 women diagnosed each year and 6 to 7 percent of those are under 40.

Thewes says that being diagnosed with a potentially life threatening illness is bad enough, but with younger people there are other factors which need to be considered.

Current treatments can affect a woman's fertility and this can be very distressing, especially for women who may not yet have children.

Ms Thewes, who was initially based at the Department of Medical Oncology at the Prince of Wales Hospital, says when she began her research it appeared there were no younger celebrities who were diagnosed with breast cancer.

But the media coverage of a trio of such as Kylie Minogue, with the disease, has raised awareness that young women do get breast cancer and that fertility may be an issue.

She says women can now consider options which include using IVF prior to chemotherapy and using more experimental techniques such as freezing the woman's ovary tissue.

So if a woman does become infertile after treatment she may choose from a number of options.

In the study 228 women who were 40 or younger, with a diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer, participated.

All the women completed the questionnaire 6 to 60 months after diagnosis, and it was found that 71 percent of these women had discussed fertility-related information with a health professional, while 86 percent of them discussed menopause.

Ms Thewes says that while oncologists have extensive knowledge about cancer, they might not have similar levels of knowledge about fertility, and she sees a need to encourage a multidisciplinary approach.

The team is currently developing some tools for younger women with a diagnosis of breast cancer to help inform and educate them about fertility preservation methods after diagnosis and the management of menopausal side-effects of breast cancer treatment.

This research was multi-centred and a collaboration between the Department of Medical Oncology, Prince of Wales Hospital, and researchers at 19 oncology clinics in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

The study is published in the international Journal of Clinical Oncology.