By Kay Quinn, KSDK-TV, October 5, 2006

Learning you’re expecting a child can be one of the happiest times in a woman’s life. When that blessed event is threatened by an unexpected diagnosis, it takes a team of specialists to ensure the best possible outcome.

When Leila Sadat found out she was expecting another baby one word summed it up.

"Surprise. We were not trying to have another baby, I don’t know we were just surprised and happy but a little apprehensive because (of) my age."

Sadat and her husband thought their family was complete until baby Emily came along.

"It’s so great and she’s so cute," says Sadat.

A little bundle of joy, who Leila worried she may never hold. Doctors delivered the news 19 weeks into her pregnancy.

"She said it was possibly inflammatory breast cancer and gave me a 40 percent chance," says Sadat. "Subsequently the pathology came back and the pathology actually showed it wasn’t inflammatory cancer, that it was ordinary breast cancer."
It was another unexpected announcement, but this time the news was much harder to comprehend.

"It was pretty rough, you’re like facing your mortality, right," says Sadat. "You’re thinking, ''I’m a young woman, I’m pregnant,'' and you go from that to, ''Wow, maybe I won’t see my kids grow up.''"

Sadat was quickly surrounded by a team of medical specialists from St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Barnes Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

"Obviously, a pregnant woman there are two people to consider, there’s the patient and the fetus, and we have to create the right balance for the two of them," says Dr. Matthew Ellis, head of Medical Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine.

Doctors decided to treat Sadat with a several cycles of chemotherapy, then deliver the baby the moment she’s healthy enough to live outside the uterus.

"Now this sounds very strange, but the bottom line is after the first trimester of pregnancy the fetus is fully formed. It turns out we can use chemotherapy agents because the placenta has this extraordinary ability to block the chemotherapy traveling to the baby," says Ellis.

Sadat, her husband and doctors also had to consider the risks associated with early delivery.

"(They) had to understand what prematurity meant, and what the risks of prematurity are, like lung problems, eating problems and breathing problems, and how to balance those risks with the importance of fighting her own tumor," says Dr. Sessions Cole, head of Neonatology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Little Emily Elizabeth was born 14 weeks later by C-section, weighing in at just over four pounds.

"So they took her early and that was really scary for us, because of all the issues with a premature baby, but they needed to get me back into treatment," says Sadat.

"She tolerated the chemotherapy very well. The breast cancer has gone into a nice remission, she’s delivered her baby, the baby’s healthy, so we are very pleased with the outcome," says Ellis.

Less than a month after becoming a mom for the third time, Sadat is going through another round of chemotherapy. She’s willing to do whatever it takes for a future with her family.

"She’s a cupcake, it’s wonderful, it’s wonderful," says Sadat of her daughter.

It was traditionally thought that breast cancer during pregnancy had a worse than average outcome, but recent data suggests that’s not the case.