Abstract
The incidence of breast cancer in premenopausal women is increasing and many of them still remain fertile after treatment. Allied to the current tendency to postpone pregnancy, it is expected that an increasing number of patients undergoing conservative treatment for breast cancer will get pregnant. Anatomical and histopathological aspects and the probability of lactation and breast feeding after breast irradiation are reviewed in this article. Lactation is possible after radiotherapy, present in at least 50% of the patients, but in reduced volume. This perspective is more correlated to the type of surgery and radiation dose used. Biochemical changes were observed in irradiated breast milk. Breastfeeding in the contralateral breast is not affected.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.