Bad news from the world of science: a Japanese study coordinated by a team of pediatric oncologists at the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo has succeeded in demonstrating how a pregnant woman can transmit cancer to her child during childbirth. Scientists have described some cases of lung cancer due to contamination from one’s mother. This raises many doubts about the non-transmissibility of cancer. Here are the results of the study. Cancer can be transmitted
Science tells us that there are some cases of transmissible cancer in the world. For example, in a marsupial mammal called the Tasmanian devil, devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), a disease that can be transmitted very easily, can develop. To such an extent that it seems to have halved the number of these wild animals. Until now no similar form has ever been found in humans, however there is a natural pathway that allows the transmission of cancer cells also in humans. This is the hemocorial placenta, which apparently is “permissive for cellular traffic” as explained in the scientific text Cancer cell transmission via the placenta. Cancer can be passed from mother to child
Cancer can therefore be transmitted from one mother to a child or from one twin to another in the womb. Thankfully, cases are quite rare but not impossible. What was discovered during the new study, however, is that even during childbirth there is the possibility of transmitting cancer if the mother has cervical cancer. The reason
During the passage, the little one can inhale the amniotic fluid that has come into contact with the cancerous cells and, once it has entered the respiratory system, the diseased cells can trigger a neoplasm – for example in the lungs. The confirmation of this hypothesis comes from the scientists of the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo. The team worked with Jikei University School of Medicine, San Luca International Hospital, Toho University Pediatric Department and Hokkaido University School of Medicine. The peribronchial pattern of tumor growth in both infants suggests that tumors result from mother-to-baby vaginal transmission through aspiration of tumor-contaminated vaginal fluids during birth. In patients, tumors were seen only in the lungs and were located along the bronchi. It is likely that the maternal cancer cells were present in the amniotic fluid, secretions or blood from the cervix and were inhaled by the babies during vaginal delivery, ”the researchers wrote.Lung cancer contracted from natural mother
To reach this conclusion, the research team led by Dr. Ayumu Arakawa, examined some male children with lung cancer. From genetic investigations it was possible to deduce how the triggering cause was the contact with the cancerous cells present on the mother’s cervix during childbirth. Although the children in the study seem to have recovered after the removal of one of the two lungs or a part of it, they still had to undergo very long courses of chemotherapy with rather heavy side effects. Conversely, the mothers of the children died when they were still very young. One of them hadn’t had the papilloma virus vaccine.
Scientific sources
Vaginal Transmission of Cancer from Mothers with Cervical Cancer to Infants – The New England Journal of Medicine.
