Women not routinely screened for pregnancy prior to chemoimmunotherapy, Aussie study reveals
Associate Professor Nada Hamad says assessing pregnancy status before treatment should be standard care.
Clinicians are calling for mandatory pregnancy tests for women undergoing chemotherapy in combination with immunotherapy.
It follows research from late last year which found only 17% of chemoimmunotherapy cycles screened patients for pregnancy before their treatment began.
Published in the Internal Medicine Journal, the study included 304 women between 18-51 years of age and attempted to track pregnancy screening and contraception counselling prior to their chemoimmunotherapy treatment (CIT) at St Vincent’s Hospital Kinghorn Cancer Centre in Sydney.
The types of cancer ranged from breast, haematological to gastrointestinal.
