Mother of baby born free of breast cancer gene hails 'priceless' procedure

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.

Puppy

Password, Yet

The Frog & Golf

THIS IS HILARIOUS!


A man takes the day off work and
Decides to go out golfing.


He is on the second hole when he
Notices a frog sitting next to the green.


He thinks nothing of it and is
About to shoot when he Hears,



Ribbit 9 Iron.'



The man looks around and doesn't
See anyone.


Again, he hears, 'Ribbit 9 Iron.'


He looks at the frog and decides to
Prove the frog wrong, puts the
Club away, and grabs a 9 iron.



Boom!
He hits it 10 inches from the cup.


He is shocked.


He says to the frog,


'Wow that's amazing.


You must be a lucky frog, eh?


The frog replies,



'Ribbit Lucky frog.'




The man decides to take the frog
with him to the next hole.

'What do you think frog?'



The man asks.



'Ribbit 3 wood.'


The guy takes out a 3 wood and,
Boom! Hole in one.



The man is befuddled and doesn't know
What to say.


By the end of the day, the man golfed the
Best game of golf in his life and
asks the frog,



'OK where to next?'
The frog replies,


'Ribbit Las Vegas .


' They go to Las Vegas
and the guy says,


'OK frog, now What?'


The frog says, 'Ribbit Roulette.'


Upon approaching the roulette table,


The man asks,


'What do you think I should Bet?'


The frog replies,


'Ribbit $3000, black 6.'

Now, this is a
million-to-one shot to win, but
after the golf game the man
Figures what the heck.

Boom!


Tons of cash comes sliding back across the table.

The man takes his winnings and
buys the best room in the Hotel.


He sits the frog down and Says,


'Frog, I don't know how to repay you.
You've won me all this money and
I am forever grateful.'

The frog replies,

'Ribbit KissMe.'
He figures why not,

Since after all the frog did for Him,


He deserves it.



With a kiss, the frog turns into a
gorgeous 15-year-old girl.


'And that,

your honor, is how the girl
ended up in my room.



So help me God
Or my name is not William Jefferson Clinton.'

Peanuts again!

Genetic screening fails women trying for IVF birth

Genetic screening, often seen as the best hope for older women undergoing IVF treatment to have a child, is ineffective and actually reduces rates of pregnancies, scientists said on Wednesday.

The surprise finding from a controlled clinical trial involving 408 women is a major setback for a technology that is used increasingly in fertility clinics worldwide.

Couples aiming for a test-tube baby can pay between $3,000 (INR 150,000) and $5,000 (INR 250,000) for a preimplantation genetic screening test. The idea is to study the genetic make-up of embryos before transfer to the womb to make sure they are healthy and likely to survive.

But while the concept is very plausible, Dutch researchers found screening in women aged 35 to 41 years actually made matters worse.

After 12 weeks, only 25 percent of women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) whose embryos had been screened were pregnant, against 37 percent in the control group. Eventual live birth rates were also lower, at 24 versus 35 percent.

Just why screening cuts the chance of a viable pregnancy is unclear but Sebastiaan Mastenbroek from the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam said the test itself might be to blame.

"It is possible that the biopsy of a cell from an early embryo on day three after conception hampers the potential of an embryo to successfully implant, though the effect of biopsy alone on pregnancy rates has not been studied," he said in a statement.
Usually, embryos will have reached the eight-cell stage of development by day three but sometimes there may be as few as four cells, which could in theory make the procedure riskier.

Other factors may be the limited number of chromosomes that can be analysed, which may lead to the transfer of embryos that appear normal but in fact contain faults, and the fact many embryos are "mosaic", where a single cell does not properly reflect the genetic make-up of the whole.

Mastenbroek and colleagues presented their work at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Lyon, France.

The research was also published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, alongside a recommendation from the team that preimplantation should no longer be performed routinely in older women undergoing IVF therapy.

Fertility experts said the findings were a wake-up call for clinicians and showed the need for more research into the benefits, if any, of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

Peter Braude, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Kings College London, said the work showed screening did not work in older mothers-to-be and similar studies were needed on whether it helped younger women with repeated IVF failure.

"Vulnerable patients should no longer be exploited financially under the impression that it works," he said.

Joep Geraedts, ESHRE’s chairman elect and a genetics expert at the Dutch-Belgian University Limburg, told Reuters in a telephone interview the new study would come as a shock, particularly in the United States, where PGD is widely used.

"No other medical procedure with such profound medical and ethical consequences has been so poorly studied," Kathy Hudson, director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, said.

The Aisle Seat

Two Pakistanis boarded a flight out of New Delhi.

One took a window seat and the other sat next to him in the middle
seat... Just before takeoff, a Sikh, an Indian Army NCO sat down
in the aisle seat.

After takeoff, the soldier kicked his milirary shoes off, wiggled his toes and
was settling in when the Pakistani in the window seat said, 'I need to get up
and get a coke.'

Don't get up,' said the Sardar, 'I'm in the aisle seat, 'I'll get it for you.'

As soon as he left, he picked up the Sardar's left shoe and spat in it.

When the Sardar returned with the coke, the other Paki said, 'That looks
good, I'd really like one, too.'

Again, the Sardar obligingly went to fetch it. While he was gone, the
other Paki picked up the Sardar's right shoe and spat in it.

When the Sardar returned, they all sat back and enjoyed the flight, the
Pakis finishing their cokes. As the plane was landing, the Sardar slipped
his feet into his shoes and knew immediately what had happened.

He leaned over and asked his Pakistani neighbors ...

''Why does it have to be this way?''
''How long must this go on . . . ?"

''This fighting between our nations . . . ?''

''This hatred . . . ?''

''This animosity . . . ?''

''This spitting in shoes...


Scroll down for the punch line!





















and pissing in cokes . . . ?''