Baby free of breast cancer gene born in Britain

Jan 9, 2009, 11:04 GMT

London - The first baby in Britain tested before conception for a genetic form of breast cancer has been born in a hospital in London, doctors said Friday.

The baby girl grew from an embryo screened to ensure that it did not contain the faulty BRCA 1 gene, which passes the risk of breast cancer down generations.

Any daughter born with the gene has an 80 per cent chance of developing breast cancer. A son could have been a carrier and passed the altered gene on to any daughters.

Doctors at University College London said the girl and her 27-year- old mother, who wished to remain anonymous, were doing well following the birth this week.

Announcing her birth, Paul Serhal, medical director of the Assisted Conception Unit at the hospital, 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.'

He explained that women in three generations of the husband's family had been diagnosed with the disease in their 20s.

The technique of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) involves taking a cell from an embryo when it is around three days old and testing it.

The procedure is still relatively rare but has been used to screen embryos for breast cancer in the US and in Belgium.

PGD has already been used in Britain to free babies of inherited disorders such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease.

Permission to carry out PGD for breast cancer had to be obtained from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority watchdog by the London clinic which performed the procedure.

Cancer research groups said Friday the birth raised 'complex' issues, while ethical campaign groups warned of a 'slippery slope' towards the creation of so-called designer babies.

'Underlying all this is eugenics,' said Josephine Quintavalle of campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics.