The mother of Britain's first baby selected genetically to be free of a breast cancer gene has hailed the prodecure as "priceless".
She likened the disease to a sword of Damocles hanging over her family and hoped her daughter's birth would help other families. Her baby, born last week, grew from an embryo screened to ensure it did not contain the faulty BRCA1 gene, which passes the risk of breast cancer down generations. Any daughter born with the gene has a 50 per cent to 85 per cent chance of developing breast cancer. The birth has sparked debate about the ethics of embryo screening.
The 26-year-old mother, who refused to be named, said she decided to undergo the screening process after seeing all her husband's female relatives have the disease. Speaking to The Sunday Times, she said: "To be able to look at our daughter and to know that she doesn't have the gene is a massive sigh of relief for us.
"We have eliminated that risk and that is priceless.
"Having watched my husband's family go through what they have been through, knowing that my daughter doesn't need to go through that, makes it all worthwhile.
"I hope this encourages others to do the same."
The baby's 28-year-old father said: "A massive amount of credit has to go to my wife for undergoing what was effectively an invasive procedure of IVF for a problem which wasn't her own but was from my side of the family.
"Talking about how we felt about it probably brought us closer together.
"There are many pitfalls my children may go through in life that I cannot predict for them.
"We do know about this one and that is why we felt a duty to do something about it."
Doctors at the University College London hospital, where the mother received IVF treatment, said they were on Friday that he was "absolutely delighted" at the breakthrough. Medical director at the Assisted Conception Unit Paul Serhal 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."
The technique, known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has already been used in the UK to free babies of inherited disorders such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease. But breast cancer is different because it does not inevitably affect a child from birth and may or may not develop later in life. There is also a chance it can be cured, if caught early enough.
Permission to carry out PGD for breast cancer had to be obtained from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority by the London clinic which performed the procedure. The body, which licenses IVF clinics and embryo research, gave the go-ahead after holding a public consultation. Doctors at the private clinic housed at University College Hospital conducted tests on 11 embryos by removing just one cell from each when they were three days old. Six embryos were found to carry the defective BRCA1 gene. Two embryos which were free of the gene were implanted, resulting in a single pregnancy.
Faulty genes are responsible for between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of the 44,000 cases of breast cancer that occur in the UK each year. BRCA1 and its sister gene BRCA2 are the two most commonly involved. Women with a defective BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene are up to seven times more likely to develop breast cancer than those without the mutations.
