Mutant gene puts mothers of babies with cancer at risk
Danger: Mother and baby can have the faulty gene
Thousands of mothers whose children have cancer could be at increased risk of developing breast cancer themselves, a study has found.
The mutation of a gene known as p53 – which all of us have and which normally suppresses cancer – could mean that mothers and their children are more susceptible to the disease.
The faulty gene could affect steroid and hormone levels in the womb, which may not only predispose children to cancer but also sensitise mothers' breast tissue.
The potentially groundbreaking study follows research which identified a link between children with soft-tissue sarcomas – a form of cancer usually found in teenagers – and mothers with breast cancer.
But this new research suggests that many more women may be at risk than was previously thought.
The findings shed fresh light on inherited forms of cancer which could eventually lead to better identifying of those most at risk.
It is hoped that the evidence could be used to screen at-risk mothers to catch any tumours at an early stage. And it could lead to the development of drugs to target the faulty gene.
The study, by Manchester University scientists led by Dr Dong Pang, looked at breast cancer cases in the mothers of 2,668 children who were also having treatment for so-called 'solid' tumours where the cancer produces a lump.
The number of instances of breast cancer was compared with the number of expected cases for women of a similar age range across the UK.
The results showed the heightened risk of breast cancer among mothers of children with solid tumours was not uniform across all groups, but was associated with a small number of tumour types and patient characteristics.
Breast cancer cases were found most frequently in mothers of children with rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the connective tissues.
Mothers were also more likely to develop breast cancer in cases where the child had skin cancer or a cancer affecting the central nervous system.
It is thought that the same genetic mechanism may be present in mothers of children with a whole range of other cancers. The Cancer Research UK-funded study is published online today in the peer-reviewed journal ecancermedicalscience.
Professor Jillian Birch, director of Cancer Research UK's paediatric and familial cancer research group at Manchester University, said: "It is thought that most of this increased risk is due to the inheritance of an abnormal copy of a gene called p53, which is present in both the mother and child.
"We think that the high risk of breast cancer may be related to an unusually high level of certain hormones during pregnancy – which is also due to inheriting an abnormal copy of the p53 gene.
"We also think that other related genes may be involved and hope further research will enable scientists to identify what these are.
"Inheritance of such abnormal genes is extremely rare but research like this on these rare families can lead to clues about what might cause breast cancer and childhood cancers more generally."
