Pregnancy Disorder Linked To Cancer

When Rivka A. gave birth to her son in a hospital in Jerusalem in 1972, suffered from pre-eclampsia. situation. Pre-eclampsia, a common complication of pregnancy, is a box marked by high blood pressure after the sixth month. Rivka also had other common symptoms such as proteins in the urine and swollen ankles due to fluid accumulation. Pre-eclampsia can cause a list of problems, even death, the mother and fetus. Rivka recovered from the disease and continued to enjoy good health for many years before developing breast cancer in 1992.

It seemed initially that there existed a connection between these two different health problems. But thanks to a major Israeli project which followed thousands of women like Rivka, that connection has been established, with implications for all women with preeclampsia. According to the Israel study, women with a history of pre-eclampsia may have a higher risk of developing cancer, particularly stomach cancer, breast, ovarian, lung and larynx. The findings appeared in British Medical Journal, although preliminary, suggest there might be some environmental or genetic factor common to both preeclampsia and cancer. Previous studies have denied any association between pre-eclampsia and cancer, said Dr. Ora Paltiel head of research at the Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University – Hadassah. Sharma Bluestone spoke with conviction. “With these new findings, we speculate that either is specific to the population, or perhaps has to do with diet, or congenital factors common to preeclampsia and cancer that are specific to the population,” he told ISRAEL21c . Preeclampsia affects about ten percent of pregnancies, and more often in the first pregnancy.

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