The effect of chemotherapy in pregnant women on the teeth of offspring

No standardized therapeutic interventions have been reported for patients diagnosed with breast cancer during pregnancy. A high risk for malformations in the fetus has been claimed when chemotherapy is administered during the first trimester of the pregnancy. Tooth formation of the primary teeth begins at 11 to 14 weeks of fetal life and is completed postnatally. Therefore, the teeth may be affected by insults during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, thus acting as a sensitive parameter of possible placental transfer of chemotherapy. The cases presented describe the dental status of 2 young children whose mothers received chemotherapy for cancer during the third trimester of their pregnancies (adriamycin or adriamycin and Cytoxan). Both women gave birth to healthy babies, born with full hair, normal blood counts, and birth weights (3.200 and 3.100 kgs). Dental examinations of both children (at ages 18 and 30 months) revealed sound teeth. It seems that adriamycin and cytoxan for cancer chemotherapy do not affect the primary teeth when administered in the third trimester of pregnancy.