Shakhar Keren, Valdimarsdottir Heiddis B, Bovbjerg Dana H
Biobehavioral Medicine Program, Department of Oncological Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA.
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007 Jun;16(6):1082-6. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-07-0014.
The protective effect of having a first full-term pregnancy (FFTP) at a younger age on women's lifetime risk of breast cancer is well known. Less appreciated is the increased risk seen in the years immediately following pregnancy. This adverse effect is more pronounced and more prolonged in women with later age at FFTP. The mechanisms responsible for this increased risk are still poorly understood. In the present paper, we put forward the hypothesis that the marked peripheral immune changes induced by pregnancy may account for these effects. We highlight immune changes that characterize the unique immune state of pregnancy (a combination of cellular immunosuppression and enhanced inflammatory response), note the resemblance of these changes to cancer escape mechanisms, and discuss why such immune changes may be critical for the development of breast cancer following pregnancy. We further support this idea by initial findings from our own laboratory that the age at FFTP is negatively related to natural killer cell cytotoxicity many years later and propose possible models for the kinetics of the immune changes during and following pregnancy. The effect of age at FFTP on the immune function is currently understudied. Its potential relevance to the development of breast cancer stresses the need for further research.
年轻时首次足月妊娠（FFTP）对女性乳腺癌终生风险具有保护作用，这是众所周知的。而妊娠后 immediately 几年内风险增加则较少受到关注。这种不利影响在首次足月妊娠年龄较大的女性中更为明显和持久。导致这种风险增加的机制仍知之甚少。在本文中，我们提出假说，即妊娠引起的显著外周免疫变化可能是这些影响的原因。我们强调了妊娠独特免疫状态所特有的免疫变化（细胞免疫抑制和炎症反应增强的组合），指出这些变化与癌症逃逸机制的相似之处，并讨论了为什么这种免疫变化可能对妊娠后乳腺癌的发生至关重要。我们自己实验室的初步发现进一步支持了这一观点，即首次足月妊娠年龄与多年后的自然杀伤细胞细胞毒性呈负相关，并提出了妊娠期间及之后免疫变化动力学的可能模型。首次足月妊娠年龄对免疫功能的影响目前研究较少。其与乳腺癌发生的潜在相关性强调了进一步研究的必要性。 （注：原文中“immediately”翻译为“立即”，但结合语境此处翻译为“紧接着”更通顺，整体译文根据更通顺的表述进行了调整）
