Britain's First Fetus Genetically Screened For Cancer

Filed in archive Diagnostics, Methodologies and Instrumentation , Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics , Other Biotechnology News on May 16, 2006

We can endlessly argue about the ethics of the expanded Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) policy. Meanwhile, a woman is already pregnant with the first embryo that has been genetically screened for cancer.

Although they did not have fertility problems, the woman and her partner created embryos by IVF. This allowed doctors to remove a cell and test it for the cancer gene, so only unaffected embryos were transferred to her womb.

The cancer being oblitrated in this case is retinoblastoma, a kind of hereditary eye cancer.

Retinoblastoma accounts for 11 per cent of all cancers that develop in the first year of life. In almost half of cases, it is caused by an inherited mutation in a gene called RB1. Parents with this defective gene have a 50 per cent chance of passing it on to a child, and it causes tumours in 90 per cent of those who inherit it. The mutation also raises the lifetime risk of suffering other cancers from a third to more than half.

The number seems to justify the parents' decision. However, as embryo rights activists say,

"We mustn't forget the embryos that were not given a chance to live. This is a worrying application because we are looking at a condition that is treatable."

Be sure to read the full article from Times Online, First baby in Britain designed cancer-free, before forming your opinion.