Mothers with cancer can transmit the disease to their babies during childbirth | The State
Vaginal birth is highly recommended by specialists in neonatologyBut when the mother suffers from a serious health condition, it is probably not the best option.
Specialists from the National Cancer Center in Tokyo, Japan, found that mothers with cancer can pass the disease on to their babies during childbirth, particularly those with cervical cancer. By analyzing the case of two six-year-old and 23-month-old children, both with lung cancer, they found an “exact genetic match” of the children’s tumors with their mothers’ cervical cancer.
When performing routine tests, the researchers observed a pattern of tumor growth located only in the lungs and along the bronchi of the children, suggesting that the children may have aspirated cancer cells during vaginal delivery.
“If the mother has cervical cancer, the baby can be exposed to tumor cells in the fluids of the birth canal and could aspirate the tumor cells into the lungs. Thus, mother-to-child transmission of the tumor may be a risk of vaginal delivery among women with cervical tumors”Wrote the authors of the research published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
While “transmission of cancer from mother to offspring is extremely rare and is estimated to occur in approximately one baby in every 500,000 mothers with cancer,” it is possible that Babies are exposed to transmission of the disease through the placenta, especially in cases where the mother has cancer of the blood, skin, lungs and cervix. In these cases, “the spread of tumor cells from the mother to multiple organs (such as bones, liver and soft tissues) in the baby is observed.”That is usually diagnosed during the first two years of life.
But in the case of mothers with cervical cancer, experts believe that probably tumor cells from the mother are present in the amniotic fluid, secretions or blood of the cervix, so they can be aspirated by babies during vaginal delivery.
“These cases indicate that mother-to-child transmission of cervical cancer is possible during vaginal delivery; therefore yese should recommend caesarean section to mothers with cervical cancer”, They assure.
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