Controversies about fertility and pregnancy issues in young breast cancer patients: current state of the art

Abstract

Purpose of review 

For trying to help physicians in counseling their young patients with breast cancer interested in fertility preservation and future reproductive plans, this manuscript aims to perform an overview of the main available data on 10 controversies in this field.

Recent findings 

Thanks to the improvement in patients’ prognosis, a growing attention towards fertility and pregnancy issues has been given over the past years and is currently provided to young breast cancer patients. However, several grey zones persist in many domains of this field and some physicians are still uncomfortable to deal with these issues.

Summary 

Despite the great number of breast cancer patients experiencing fertility and pregnancy concerns at the time of diagnosis, the pursuit of fertility preserving strategies is realized only for a small proportion of them. The lack of adequate oncofertility counseling at the time of anticancer treatment decisions and the high costs of fertility preserving procedures can be considered the main explanations for these findings. The several ongoing registries and prospective studies investigating fertility and pregnancy issues in young breast cancer patients are crucial to acquire more robust data and try to address and solve the still unmet controversies in this field.