Mothers to be with Cancer

The umbilical cord and the placenta is an unborn baby’s lifeline. The placenta also protects the baby from infections and potentially harmful substances as oxygen and nutrients in the mother’s blood pass across the placenta to the fetus. Alcohol, drugs, and cigarette smoke can cross the placenta and cause effects involving congenital disorders, drug addiction, and fetal alcohol syndrome. A Japanese women gave birth to a healthy baby girl and a two months later died of cancer of the blood (Leukemia). The baby, at eleven months old, was found to have cancer in her jaw and it spread to her lungs. Both mother and daughter shared the same mutated gene. Other tests showed the cancer had spread before birth. The baby’s immune system should have recognized the cancer cells as foreign invaders and destroyed them, which is why mother-to-child cancer transmission is so rare.The baby’s tumor cells were missing an important piece of DNA that plays a huge role in immune system function. Because this was missing, the cancer cells were able to pass through undetected. “Leukemia cells can be destroyed by the immune system,” said Dr. David Grant, scientific director at Leukaemia Research.