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Two children developed lung cancer after inhaling cancer cells at birth
The children inhaled cancerous cells from their mothers' cervix during birth, and these caused healthy tumors and airways to appear.
"This is another great reason to get vaccinated against HPV," the researchers said
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Cervical cancer
cancer
Papilloma
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Wednesday, 13 January 2021, 06:24
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The motive
Campaign of the Association for the War on Cancer to Encourage Vaccination against the Human Papillomavirus (Association for the War on Cancer)
For the first time in history, scientists have been able to demonstrate how mothers can infect their children with cancer cells during childbirth.
The new and precedent-setting study describes two cases of children who apparently developed lung cancer following inhalation of cancer cells, which originated from tumors in their mothers' cervix.
The cells were inhaled by the children when they first cried as soon as they went out into the world, at birth.
Although this is a very rare way to get cancer, the researchers note that their study provides another excellent justification for vaccinating against human papillomavirus (HPV).
The HPV vaccine can prevent most cases of cervical cancer.
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To the full article
The study was conducted at the National Cancer Center in Japan, and an article summarizing its results was recently published in the leading medical journal New England Journal of Medicine.
It describes two different cases of children who became ill, one at 23 months of age and the other at 6 years of age, and developed symptoms that included cough and chest pain.
Both children were eventually diagnosed with lung cancer.
Another thing the two children had in common was that their two mothers were diagnosed with cervical cancer shortly after birth.
The researchers estimate that the cancer cells were in the amniotic fluid and secretions in the mothers' cervix.
Newborn is placed on the womb of a mother immediately after birth (Photo: ShutterStock)
At first, doctors thought it was a coincidence, but later more and more similarities emerged between the two cases of these two children and these two mothers: The tumors of the mothers and children were tested and found to be positive for strain 16 of the HPV virus - one of the most violent and dangerous strains of papilloma virus. For the appearance of cancerous tumors and precancerous lesions in the cervix.
Advanced genetic sequencing performed on the tumors of the two children revealed that the same mutations existed in them just as in tumors found in their mothers.
Moreover, in boys' tumors no Y chromosome is found. Since males typically have one copy of chromosome Y and one of chromosome X and females have two copies of X, the absence of Y from the tumor indicates that it is of genetic origin on the mother's side.
Extremely rare cases
It is already known that in rare cases, cancer can be passed from mother to fetus through the placenta, but the researchers believed that in the cases of these two boys a different scenario happened.
They noted the fact that the tumors appeared only in the children's health and along their airways.
According to them, this fact indicates that the cancer cells were present in the amniotic fluid and in the secretions and blood originating from the cervix and which were inhaled by the babies at birth.
The tumors appeared only in the lungs and along the airways of the children, signaling inhalation of cancer cells.
Health growth (Photo: ShutterStock)
Another unusual concern noted in the study was the fact that one of the children developed visible disease symptoms only at age 6. This is unusual because the researchers' theory holds that cancer cell infection occurred at birth and therefore the disease developed near birth.
Their presumed explanation for this is that the child's body developed an immune response similar to that sometimes developed in organ transplant recipients, and thus was able to isolate the cancer and delay its development.
The two children received different treatments for their cancer, one of whom was treated with an immunotherapeutic drug called Opdivo while the other underwent surgery to remove the tumors from his lungs.
Unfortunately, the fate of the two mothers was the same and tragic - they both eventually died of cervical cancer.
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The simplest and most effective method to prevent such rare and unfortunate cases is to vaccinate as many people as possible against HPV.
Papilloma vaccine, illustration (Photo: ShutterStock)
It is important to note that such cases of cancer cell infection are extremely rare.
The human papillomavirus, on the other hand, is extremely common - almost any sexually active person (male or female) will come in contact with it at some point in life.
Most strains of HPV are not dangerous, however there are some violent strains that increase the risk of certain cancers, the most common of which is cervical cancer.
Fortunately, vaccines developed against the papilloma virus have been shown to be extremely effective in reducing the incidence of cervical cancer.
And the researchers stressed in their article that the simplest and most effective method to prevent rare and unfortunate cases like the two presented in this study is to vaccinate as many people as possible against HPV.
"Prevention of cervical cancer in mothers will also reduce the incidence of cancer cells in newborns. We anticipate that as the rates of papilloma vaccination rise, the incidence of cervical cancer will decrease," the Japan National Cancer Center said in a statement.
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