Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access originally published online on April 28, 2009
JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2009 101(9):687-689; doi:10.1093/jnci/djp064
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press.
BRIEF COMMUNICATION |
Induced Abortions in Danish Cancer Survivors: A Population-Based Cohort Study
Affiliations of authors: Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark (JFW, KF, JHO); International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, MD (JDB); Department of Medicine and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (JDB, JHO); Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (ALS)
Correspondence to: Jeanette Falck Winther, MD, Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Strandboulevarden 49, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark (e-mail: jeanette{at}cancer.dk).
To learn whether female cancer survivors are more likely to terminate a pregnancy by choice than other women, the occurrence of induced abortions was determined in a population-based cohort of 1688 childhood cancer survivors. Proportion ratios (PRs) were estimated from the ratio of the proportion of pregnancies that resulted in induced abortions among the survivors (or 16 700 randomly selected population control subjects) to the proportion among 2737 sisters of the survivors. The proportion of induced abortions among survivors (292 of 1479 [19.7%]) was marginally higher but not statistically significantly different from that among sisters (961 of 5092 [18.9%]; PR = 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.96 to 1.22) and similar to that of the population control subjects (5505 of 27 989 [19.7%]; PR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01 to 1.14). Survivors were not more likely than sisters and population control subjects to elect a second-trimester abortion because of physical and mental conditions or fetal abnormalities.
| CONTEXT AND CAVEATS Prior knowledge Studies have suggested that cancer survivors are concerned about the possible risks of having children. Study design The proportion of induced abortions among cancer survivors was compared with that among population control subjects and sisters of survivors, using sisters as the referent. Contributions The proportion of induced abortions among cancer survivors was similar to that of population control subjects. Implications In this study, cancer survivors were not more likely to have induced abortions than population control subjects. Limitations Associations with cancer therapies were not evaluated, so conclusions regarding specific cancer treatments could not be drawn. Data regarding the proportion of pregnancies desired and reasons why first-trimester abortions were induced were not available, so the authors could not directly assess how many cancer survivors wanted to have children or how many had early abortions because of risks related to having cancer. From the Editors
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Manuscript received November 3, 2008; revised February 3, 2009; accepted February 27, 2009.
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J Natl Cancer Inst 2009 101: 613.