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Birth size in the most recent pregnancy and maternal mortality in premenopausal breast cancer by tumor characteristics

  • Epidemiology
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Abstract

The main aim of this study was to investigate possible associations between measures of offspring size at birth in the most recent pregnancy before premenopausal breast cancer diagnosis and the risks of maternal breast cancer mortality, taking tumor characteristics into account. We also aimed to investigate if these associations are modified by age at childbirth, time since childbirth, parity, and age at diagnosis. We followed 6,019 women from their date of premenopausal breast cancer (diagnosed from 1992 to 2008) until emigration, death or December 31st, 2009, whichever occurred first. We used Cox proportional hazard regression models, adjusted for parity, age at diagnosis, and education level, to estimate associations between women pregnancy, cancer characteristics and offspring birth characteristics, and mothers’ mortality risk. In stratified analyses, mortality risks were estimated by tumor stage, ER or PR status. There was no association between offspring birth weight (HR = 1.00, 95 % CI 0.99–1.01, when used as a continuous variable), birth weight for gestational age or ponderal index, and premenopausal breast cancer mortality. Similarly, in analyses stratified by tumor stage, receptor status, and time difference between last pregnancy and date of diagnosis, we found no associations between birth size and breast cancer mortality. Our findings suggest that the hypothesis that “premenopausal breast cancer mortality is associated with offspring birth characteristics in the most recent pregnancy before the diagnosis” may not be valid. In addition, these associations are not modified by tumor characteristics.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Cancer Risk Prediction Center (CRisP), a Linneus Centre (Contract ID 70867902) financed by the Swedish Research Council, and the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2011) under Grant Agreement No. 259679.

Conflict of interest

Jan Adolfsson had advisory role in Ferring Pharmaceuticals, March–August 2014. The other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Standards

The study was approved by the research ethics committee of Karolinska Institutet.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 171 76, Stockholm, Sweden

    Mohammadhossein Hajiebrahimi, Sven Cnattingius & Shahram Bahmanyar

  2. Department of Medicine, Center for Pharmacoepidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Shahram Bahmanyar

  3. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Mats Lambe

  4. Department of Cancer Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Chung-Cheng Hsieh

  5. Department of Oncology, Örebro University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden

    Johan Ahlgren

  6. Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jan Adolfsson

  7. Department of Public Health, Public Health Faculty, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran

    Mohammadhossein Hajiebrahimi & Shahram Bahmanyar

Authors
  1. Mohammadhossein Hajiebrahimi
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  2. Sven Cnattingius
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  3. Mats Lambe
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  4. Chung-Cheng Hsieh
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  5. Johan Ahlgren
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  6. Jan Adolfsson
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  7. Shahram Bahmanyar
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Correspondence to Mohammadhossein Hajiebrahimi.

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Hajiebrahimi, M., Cnattingius, S., Lambe, M. et al. Birth size in the most recent pregnancy and maternal mortality in premenopausal breast cancer by tumor characteristics. Breast Cancer Res Treat 145, 471–480 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-014-2956-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-014-2956-0

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