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Baby born free of cancer gene
The first baby girl in Britain to have been screened before conception for a genetic form of breast cancer has been born, doctors said on Friday.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:47 January 9, 2009
London: The first baby girl in Britain to have been screened before conception for a genetic form of breast cancer has been born, doctors said on Friday.
Doctors at University College Hospital in London (UCL) had created a number of embryos through In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) for the baby's parents and screened them for the variant BRCA1 gene.
Women who carry this genetic variation have an 80 per cent chance of developing breast cancer and a 60 per cent chance of suffering ovarian cancer during their lifetime, and the couple's children were at very high risk of inheriting the gene. "This little girl will not face the spectre of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life," said Paul Serhal, Medical Director of the Assisted Conception Unit at UCL.
The mother and baby girl are doing very well.
The embryo was chosen using Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), which involves testing cells to see if they contain the faulty gene. An embryo found not have the gene was then implanted into the mother.
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