Shock: mothers infect their babies with cancer during childbirth
We explain why this problem concerns each of us.
The cases reported by Japanese doctors are very rare. But they once again and very eloquently speak about how important it is to visit a gynecologist regularly, even if nothing bothers you like a woman. Here’s what happened: Two children contracted cancer from their mothers during childbirth. Both women had cervical cancer at the time of delivery, and their sons developed lung cancer over the years.
“The pregnancies were unplanned, so the women were not tested before conceiving,” the doctors say. And, you must admit, in most cases this is what happens: a girl becomes pregnant without any preparation, and then visits to the gynecologist begin.
Oncology in the expectant mother very rarely affects the development of the fetus. But there are exceptions – when a woman has cervical cancer.
During pregnancy, amniotic fluid protects the baby from all external influences. The child breathes through the umbilical cord, he receives food in the same way – through the placenta and umbilical cord. And even if cancer cells get into the amniotic fluid, it will not do any harm to it. But when the contractions begin, the time comes for the baby to be born, everything changes.
“The baby passes through the cervix during childbirth. We believe that cancer cells enter the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby, and he involuntarily inhales these cells when he tries to take his first breath, says a report by scientists published in the authoritative medical publication New England Journal of Medicine. – This happens very rarely, only 20 cases are documented. The children were diagnosed when they were between the ages of two and ten. “
Two babies in Japan were not lucky – it was in this tiny time window, when the child is already trying to breathe on its own, but is still surrounded by amniotic fluid, they breathed in cancer cells. Malignant cells entered the lungs – and the development of a terrible pathology began.
“The first child was diagnosed with lung cancer at 23 months, when he began to have a persistent cough,” the scientists report.
Several rounds of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, removal of a lobe of one of the lungs – the baby eventually went into remission. After a year of difficult treatment, the baby recovered. But his mother did not survive: the cancer spread throughout the body, it was already impossible to stop it. But before that, scientists had time to study cancer cells from the body of a mother and a child, compare them and reveal a clear connection. It became finally clear that cancer is contagious.
The second baby fell ill later. His mother passed away when he was two years old. He himself had symptoms of the disease at the age of six. The kid had to remove one of his lungs, and the therapy lasted 15 long months. Now he is alive and well, but he was left without a mother.
By the way
Scientists estimate that one in 500 women with cancer passes the disease on to their baby during childbirth. During pregnancy, cancer develops in about one in every thousand. One of the most common types of female oncology is cervical cancer. About 570 thousand such diagnoses are made around the world annually, and 311 thousand women die from it every year. The most common victims of the disease are women aged 35 to 44 years.
That is why doctors advise every year to be examined by a gynecologist, to take a smear for cervical cytology for all girls from the age of 25. After all, this disease is treatable only in the early stages of development.