Gestational non-trophoblastic cancers

Non-trophoblastic cancers complicating pregnancy are rare with an incidence of approximately 1 in 1000 pregnancies, common sites being female genital tract and breast. We report a series of seven pregnancy associated cancers in a six year period (2009-2014). The patients ranged in age from 22-38 years (mean age 27.7 years). An antemortem diagnosis was made in four patients, the gestational age ranging from 12 weeks to 28 weeks. They presented with mass lesions and site associated symptoms. These included dys-germinoma of the left ovary, serous papillary tumour of borderline malignancy involving the right ovary, angiosarcoma of the left breast and left frontal anaplastic oligodendroglioma. Surgical excision was performed in all four cases with two postoperative deaths. The remaining three cancers were encountered at autopsy, the gestational age ranging from 31-37 weeks. These patients presented with acute febrile illness, dysphagia with multiple subcutaneous nodules and generalized weakness which were due to pulmonary giant cell carcinoma, esophageal adeno-squamous carcinoma and hematologic malignancy, respectively. Cancers associated with pregnancy tend to have aggressive course with poor prognosis.