It has come to light that the sperm of a man carrying a rare cancer-causing mutation was used to conceive at least 67 children. Of them, 10 children have since been diagnosed with cancer, The Guardian and the Independent reported.
Twenty-three of the children have now been found to carry the variant, while some have been diagnosed with cancers such as leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The case came to light when two families independently contacted their fertility clinics after their children developed cancers that appeared to be linked to a rare genetic variant. The European Sperm Bank, which had supplied the sperm, confirmed that the variant in a gene called TP53 was present in some of the donor’s sperm.
An analysis by the European Sperm Bank confirmed that the variant was present but was not known to be linked to cancer at the time of donation in 2008.
The case has highlighted concerns about the lack of internationally agreed limits on the use of donor sperm.
Dr Edwige Kasper, a biologist at Rouen University Hospital in France has been quoted as saying by the reports: “We need to have a European limit on the number of births or families for a single donor.
“We can’t do whole-genome sequencing for all sperm donors – I’m not arguing for that,” she added. “But this is the abnormal dissemination of genetic disease. Not every man has 75 children across Europe.”
She added: “I analysed the variant using population and patient databases, computer prediction tools and the results of functional trials, and came to the conclusion that the variant was probably cancer-causing and that children born from this donor should receive genetic counselling.”