Mom-to-child cancer transfer is rare case

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Cancer genetics experts say a case in which cancer was transmitted from a Japanese mother to her fetus is extremely rare and therefore no cause for alarm.

The case was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper documented that an 11-month-old girl was found to have a tumor with a genetic signature identical to a cancer detected in her mother.

Robert Weinberg, director of the MIT Ludwig Center for Cancer Research, told ABC News he is concerned about news stories about the case.

"They are creating alarms in people who will come to believe that cancer is contagious and that this transmission from mother to fetus of cancer represents a process that is common enough for the general public to learn about," said Weinberg, a top expert in cancer genetics.

There have been an estimated 30 suspected cases of cancer being similarly transmitted during the past 100 years, ABC reported, but the current case is the first in which the cancer in the baby conclusively originated with the mother.

Weinberg said the odds of mother-to-child cancer transmission are less than one in a million.

Mel Greaves, a professor of cell biology at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton, England, is the lead author of the study.

In a release, he stressed similar cases of transmission are "exceedingly rare and the chances of any pregnant woman with cancer passing it on to her child are remote."