Cancer during pregnancy: Fear, anxiety and, in many cases, a joyous outcome

Despite the many difficulties, hope endures among mothers-to-be who have cancer

Every year, Trisha Phillips looks forward to the heightened feelings of love that come with Valentine’s Day, and in 2025, her emotions were running particularly high: A baby was on the way.

However, as the days ticked by, Ms. Phillips—who has asked that her real name not be used—grew increasingly alarmed over the pain she was experiencing.

As the discomfort intensified, she had no choice but to be admitted to the JGH, unnerved by a near-certain feeling that the diagnosis would be grim.

She turned out to be right: In the late winter of 2025, the worst was realized when she received a cancer diagnosis.

With two lives at stake, Ms. Phillips turned to medical specialists at the JGH for answers to the questions that had been haunting her: Does a pregnancy have to be terminated if the mother has cancer? (No, she was told.) Can the fetus be harmed by the mother’s cancer treatment? (Possibly, depending on the circumstances.) Can the mother’s cancer be transferred to the newborn baby? (No.)

Fast-forward to 2026: As another Valentine’s Day comes around, its love now spreads over little Daniel, adoringly described by his mother as “a smiley, healthy baby, a ray of sunshine who’s full of love.”

As for Ms. Phillips, she is in stable condition, her progress regularly monitored at the JGH.

“I’m so relieved that everything went well,” she says, thinking back to the summer of 2025, when she gave birth by Caesarean section. “It was a huge, stressful thing, but I focused on following the plan, walking my path with confidence, and reminding myself that what will be, will be.”

An unusual increase in cases in 2025

If 2025 had been a typical year, Ms. Phillips might have been the only pregnant woman to be treated for cancer at the hospital. According to Dr. Michael Palumbo, a JGH oncologist, only one or two such cases—or perhaps even none at all—come through the Segal Cancer Centre annually.

However, last year was an exception, says Vasthie Pierre-Louis, Head Nurse of the Postpartum Unit, where five new mothers with cancer received post-natal care.

These numbers do not necessarily mean the incidence of pregnant women with cancer is on the rise, cautions Dr. Haim Abenhaim, a JGH obstetrician-gynecologist.

He explains that since the hospital is a referral centre both for high-risk pregnancies and for cancer, an occasional bump in total cases is not, in itself, evidence of a new trend.

Nevertheless, Dr. Palumbo says, last year’s increase is noteworthy, since it highlights the need for certain physicians and nurses to become more familiar with the treatments, prognosis and options for pregnant women who have cancer.

He says many professionals, as well as most members of the public, are unaware that a woman undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer can safely complete the full term of her pregnancy and deliver a healthy child with no complications.

The gap in clinicians’ knowledge is understandable, Dr. Palumbo continues, “because even for oncologists, this situation is relatively rare. So you can imagine a general doctor or an emergency physician seeing a pregnant woman with cancer and wondering, ‘Wow, what’s going to happen here?’”

Of key importance, says Dr. Abenhaim, is that JGH patients are receiving care from a sub‑specialized, multidisciplinary team that includes oncologists and obstetricians, as well as nurses with expertise in labour, delivery and postpartum care.

“We don’t operate in silos,” he explains. “We’re in regular contact with one another during the entire continuum of the pregnancy to coordinate optimal care.”

Treating the mother and unborn child as a unit

Dr. Palumbo and Dr. Abenhaim agree that among pregnant women, breast cancer is diagnosed most often, followed (in no particular order) by gastrointestinal cancer, lymphomas, and head and neck cancers.

“You have to assess and treat the mother and her unborn child as a combined unit,” Dr. Abenhaim explains. “You try to find the ideal way to help the mother at the same time as ensuring the best outcome for the baby.”

That means steering clear of treatments that are known to be toxic to the baby, such as radiation and hormonal therapies, says Dr. Palumbo. And when medical imaging is required, MRIs are performed instead of CT scans.

“Not only do we have to think carefully about how the cancer is treated,” adds Dr. Abenhaim, “we have to take greater care to prevent the mother from getting a thromboembolism. We also have to keep the baby from having growth restrictions, and we monitor the well-being of the mother and child more diligently.”

In addition, due to the mother’s immuno-compromised state, an effort is made to minimize the number of her visits to the hospital, in order to limit her risk of picking up an infection.

Dr. Abenhaim adds that in instances where the mother must receive a type of treatment that is harmful to the baby (such as radiation), the child is often delivered as close to term as possible, followed soon afterward by administering the anti-cancer treatment to the mother.

“In general,” he says, “bringing the baby to term is preferred, especially if the treatment involves chemotherapy, which has been shown not to affect the baby in the long term.

“Even if the fetus has been exposed to two cycles of chemotherapy, the child does better if it’s delivered at 38 weeks with the chemo than if it’s delivered at 30 weeks without it.”

Keeping spirits high in difficult times

These findings are likely to bring some degree of comfort to pregnant mothers who have breast cancer or certain other types of cancer. However, the particulars may vary from one woman to another.

After undergoing surgery in the winter of 2025, Ms. Phillips was told that not all of the tumour could be removed. Not only was a second operation inadvisable, but the remnants of the tumour could not be subjected to radiation because of the pregnancy.

Instead, Ms. Phillips opted for chemotherapy, aware there was a risk it wouldn’t work. The treatments lasted several months, a period she now recalls as “a huge jump into the unknown.”

Despite the fear and sadness she sometimes experienced throughout her pregnancy, Ms. Phillips was also determined to open herself up to the happier moments that mothers-to-be often enjoy.

Early in her hospitalization, she invited close relatives to a gender-reveal gathering in her room in the Emergency Department. A few weeks later, before Ms. Phillips began chemotherapy, the photographer who had shot her wedding came to the hospital for a maternity photo shoot.

These events were supplemented by sessions of art and music therapy with members of JGH staff.

Ms. Phillips’s only regret was not having been able to hold a baby shower. “Even so,” she says, “I had this little nugget of hope and I tried not to let the circumstances rob me of the things you usually enjoy when you’re pregnant.”

Another significant source of comfort was her renewed devotion to Catholicism—in particular, through regular hospital visits with Father Aimé Mwepsi Kanyabuzige, a spiritual advisor at the JGH.

While at the JGH, she also made phone calls to the Information and Blessing Office at St. Joseph’s Oratory to discuss her situation.

“I can’t imagine how I would have survived without my faith,” Ms. Phillips says. “Focusing on my trust in God made me feel proactive in what was happening to me.”

Two medical specialists are consulted in parallel

All of this is not to say that the baby can always be saved. For example, according to Dr. Abenhaim, if acute leukemia is discovered in the mother-to-be during the first trimester, her life depends on receiving a chemotherapy regimen that is incompatible with the health of her baby.

“Nevertheless,” says Dr. Palumbo, “the possibility often exists that something can be done for both the mother and the child. That’s why she needs to be aware of her treatment options. It’s not a closed deal.”

For this reason, he says, physicians and nurses have to keep providing the mother with updated information about her condition. Ms. Phillips, for example, sometimes needed prompt advice when she felt a sudden pain, because she had no idea whether it was a normal aspect of pregnancy, the remnants of the tumour, or a consequence of her surgery.

Dr. Palumbo is aware that seeing two physicians in parallel—one from Oncology, the other from Obstetrics—can be taxing for the mother, “but it’s also more reassuring for her. These women are very strong emotionally and we want to make sure they’re told what they need to know by the relevant expert.”

Reassurance and support are also provided in the Postpartum Unit by nurses who are taught to understand the unique needs of the new mothers and the timing of their treatments, says Ms. Pierre-Louis.

This training can include anything from the moms’ clinical requirements to the way nurses greet the mother and refer to her condition upon entering her room.

Ms. Pierre-Louis says some patients may simply not feel the need to talk about themselves or their diagnosis, while others appreciate having a nurse to unburden themselves to.

“You have to imagine yourself in the patient’s position and then play it by ear,” Ms. Pierre-Louis explains. “It comes down to giving the patient the respect she needs and deserves. The nurse can gently open the door to a conversation, but it’s up to the mother to decide whether to walk through that door.”

What impressed Ms. Pierre-Louis about all of the new mothers with cancer who came through the Postpartum Unit last year was “their courage and will-power. Even though they might be sad or afraid or not know whether or how to proceed, they relied on their treating team and they made the best decision they could.”

Sensations of hope and joy are what Ms. Phillips now experiences most vividly whenever she and Daniel are together. “I feel very blessed to have him,” she says. “He makes me laugh all day.”