UK’s First Breast Cancer Gene-free Baby Born
Posted Jan 10, 2009 by Lindsay Britney
Thanks to the new technology what is now called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), UK’s first baby, a girl who is free of breast cancer gene, has been born this week. Doctors at University College London told BBC he girl and her mother were now doing well. Read excerpts below to know how the breast cancer gene-free baby girl produced :
The embryo was screened for the altered BRCA1 gene, which would have meant the girl had a 80% chance of developing breast cancer.
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) involves taking a cell from an embryo at the eight-cell stage of development, when it is around three-days old, and testing it.
Using PGD to ensure a baby does not carry an altered gene which would guarantee a baby would inherit a disease such as cystic fibrosis, is well-established.
This is before conception – defined as when the embryo is implanted in the womb.
Doctors then select an embryo free from rogue genes to continue the pregnancy, and discard any whose genetic profile points to future problems.
The reason that may lead the concerned family determined to have such a baby:
Women in three generations of her husband’s family have been diagnosed with the disease in their 20s.
The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, wanted to eradicate the gene flaw from their family.The husband’s grandmother, mother, sister and a cousin have been diagnosed with the disease.
If the 27-year-old woman and her husband had had a son, he could have been a carrier and passed it on to any daughters.
Paul Serhal, the fertility expert who treated the couple, said: “This little girl will not face the spectre of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life.
“The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter.
“The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations.”
#Permalink Tags: Breast Cancer, Girl, Heath, UK
