According to the British “Times” report, scientists found that cancer cells can spread through the uterus during pregnancy for women suffering from cancer, cancer will be passed to unborn babies, which subvert the traditional point of view – more than 100 years, scientists have believed that Even if the cancer can cross the placenta of this barrier, it might be the baby’s immune system rejected by the mother will not be passed to the fetus of cancer.

Related research published in the latest issue of “U.S. National Academy of Sciences,” on.

Few mothers and children suffering from cancer, the same situation, so far, only appeared in 30 cases. Before, scientists did not find genetic evidence to explain why the baby’s immune system can not identify from the mother’s destructive, aggressive cancer cells.

Recently, the Institute of Cancer Research in London Mergue Lieffers and Japanese scientists, together with the use of advanced genetic fingerprint recognition technology proved a baby’s leukemic cells does come from the mother.

In the latest cases, a 28-year-old Japanese mother during pregnancy, suffering from cancer, she gave birth to a baby girl in the hospital. However, a month later, the mother of vaginal bleeding, was diagnosed with leukemia and died later. Children 11 months, was diagnosed with leukemia.

The researchers found that cancer cells in the mother and baby are carrying the same mutation occurred in the cancer gene BCR-ABL1, but the baby did not hereditary gene, which means that the child can not alone generate the cancer cells, cancer cells must come from母亲.

In order to study how leukemia cells through the placental barrier in vivo in infant survival, the scientists examined the baby’s genes within cancer cells and found a lack of variation – the control of major histocompatibility locus (HLA) the performance of a certain location missing kinds of DNA. The main function of HLA molecules is to each person’s own cells and other cells to distinguish cancer cells in the absence of these HLA molecules would mean the baby’s immune system can not tell they were foreign cells.

Gelifusi pointed out that before the scientists have always thought that the placenta would be a good way to protect mothers and babies, however, in rare cases (usually leukemia or melanoma), the parent cells will pass through the placenta barrier, because the baby’s the immune system recognize cancer cells not seen them, so these cells can enter the developing fetus and has successfully taken root.

However, Gelifusi also stressed that pregnant women suffering from cancer, the cancer-child transmission probability is very low.