January 30, 2009
Does the birth of a baby lacking a cancer-causing gene mean we're on a slippery slope to designer children?
January 2009 began with the birth of a baby girl at a London hospital. Her parents had undergone a form of in vitro fertilisation (IVF), which meant that, unlike the father’s family, the baby was free of a breast cancer-causing mutation that had plagued the women of his family for generations.
This is exciting news.
Every woman across three generations of the father’s family had previously been diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, many in their 20s. Tests had shown that the family carried a faulty copy of the BRCA1 ‘high-risk’ breast cancer gene.
Although BRCA1 mutations are rare in the population as a whole, between five and eight out of ten carriers of this gene fault will go on to develop breast cancer, often at a young age (compared to an overall risk of one-in-nine of the general population). And, as is often the case with early-onset breast cancer, BRCA1 tumours will often be extremely aggressive.
So the couple took the decision to use the latest technology to ensure that their baby didn’t carry the BRCA1 fault – a mutation that the couple described as ‘like having the Sword of Damocles hanging over the family’. And, thanks to the help of the private Assisted Conception Unit at London’s UCL Hospital, they gave birth to a healthy, BRCA1-mutation-free baby on January 9th.
As with all advances in reproductive technology, this caused controversy in the media and the inevitable invocation of the ‘designer baby’ cliché – a loaded phrase that simultaneously draws on imagery of over-accessorised parents and Frankenstein-esque forbidden knowledge.
But is it really a ’slippery slope’ from here to choosing hair or eye colour, or even intelligence, as critics claim? Or is this an exciting advance for a small minority of people who live in the shadow of an inherited risk of disease?
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Breast, Cancer in the news, Genes | 
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Posted by Henry Scowcroft
January 30, 2009
As well as research, we push for better services and treatment for people with cancer
Cancer Research UK campaigns tirelessly to keep cancer high on the political agenda.
We’ve already shared some of our successes in cancer biology, cancer prevention and clinical research from 2008, but we’ve also had some fantastic achievements in our campaigning work too.
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Early detection, Policy, Screening, Smoking | 
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Posted by Jon Spiers
January 28, 2009
It is currently illegal to sell tan injections
For some, a suntan is so socially desirable that they’ll do anything to get one. Many expose themselves to heavy doses of sunlight, to the point of burning, and some use sunbeds as well. Both can increase the risk of skin cancer.
The latest fads in the tanning craze are two products called Melanotan I and Melanotan II. Both are injected into the skin and are available over the internet, in some tanning salons and in body-building gyms. Retailers claim that these products are safe and effective ways of getting a tan, and some even suggest that they could protect against skin cancer.
But the truth is that these are counterfeit products that have not yet been properly tested. We don’t know whether they are safe or dangerous, effective or useless. A new report suggests that they could even lead to changes in a person’s moles.
For now, only one thing for sure – selling them is illegal.
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Cancer in the news, Risks & Causes, Sun & UV | 
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Posted by Ed Yong
January 28, 2009
Genetic tests - good or bad idea?
In recent years more and more companies have started selling genetic tests to the public directly from the web. In some places genetic testing has even become a social activity.
But are these tests a good idea? And what does this mean for preventing and treating diseases such as cancer?
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2 Comments | Breast, Cancer Research UK-funded research, Cancer in the news, DNA, Early detection, Gene-environment, Genes, Policy, Screening | Permalink
Posted by Laura Bell
January 26, 2009
No strong evidence linking coffee to leukaemia
A headline in the Daily Mail today proclaimed “Coffee may raise child cancer risk: New evidence that caffeine could damage babies’ DNA”.
The Daily Record ran with “New fears over leukaemia link to coffee”, while the Metro said “Coffee ‘raises risk’ of leukaemia in babies”.
So what is this new research that has prompted such alarming headlines?
In short, it doesn’t exist. It hasn’t been done yet.
There is no data – no “new evidence” or “new fears”. All that exists are a series of plans and ideas in the heads of a group of scientists.
These stories were based on a press release issued by the University of Leicester, about the upcoming work of researcher Dr Marcus Cooke. Cooke has recently received funding to study how drinking caffeine during pregnancy might affect an unborn baby’s risk of leukaemia during childhood.
That is the critical point. Like any scientist, this group have sensed an interesting question and have designed a study to test their ideas. But they haven’t done anything yet.
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1 Comment | Cancer Prevention, Cancer in the news, Diet, Health & Lifestyle, Leukaemia, Risks & Causes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Yong
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