Pregnancy and the Risk of Relapse in Patients Diagnosed With Hodgkin Lymphoma

Abstract

Purpose Many patients and clinicians are worried that pregnancy after the diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) may increase the risk of relapse despite a lack of empirical evidence to support such concerns. We investigated if an association exists between pregnancy and relapse in women with a diagnosis of HL. Materials and Methods Using Swedish healthcare registers combined with medical records, we included 449 women who received a diagnosis of HL between 1992 and 2009 and who were age 18 to 40 years at diagnosis. Follow-up started 6 months after diagnosis, when the patients' condition was assumed to be in remission. Pregnancy-associated relapse was defined as a relapse during pregnancy or within 5 years after delivery. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs were estimated by using the Cox proportional hazards model. Results Among the 449 women, 144 (32%) became pregnant during follow-up. Overall, 47 relapses were recorded, of which one was a pregnancy-associated relapse. The adjusted HR for the comparison of the pregnancy-associated relapse rate to the non–pregnancy-associated relapse rate was 0.29 (95% CI, 0.04 to 2.18). The expected number of relapses in women with a recent pregnancy, given that they would experience the same relapse rate as that of women without a recent pregnancy, was 3.76; the observed-to-expected ratio was 0.27 (95% exact CI, 0.01 to 1.51). Conclusion We found no evidence that a pregnancy after diagnosis increases the relapse rate among women whose HL is in remission. Survivors of HL need to consider a range of factors when deciding about future reproduction. However, given the results of this study, the risk of pregnancy-associated relapse does not need to be considered.