Breast carcinoma during pregnancy.

The medical records of patients with pregnancy associated breast carcinoma were critically reviewed to identify the tumor characteristics, maternal details, type of treatment delivered, and disease outcome. Over the last 5 years, there were 5 patients out of 220 giving a percentage prevalence of 2.27%. The median age at presentation was 33 years. Three patients were diagnosed by the sixth week of gestational age. Three out of 5 presented with stage IIIA. Four patients has > or = 6 positive axillary lymph nodes and grade III disease. So in spite of the discovery of the tumor in the early weeks of pregnancy, our patients presented with advanced disease, which is consistent with the presentation of breast carcinoma in non-pregnant women in this part of the world. So it could be an ignored disease, which became evident with the pregnancy. We highly encourage the obstetricians to perform thorough breast examination during the prenatal period with prompt referral of any suspicious cases.