The first baby in the UK tested before conception for a genetic form of breast cancer has been born. Doctors at University College London said the girl and her mother were doing well following the birth this week. The embryo was screened for the altered BRCA1 gene, which would have meant the girl had a 80% chance of developing breast cancer. Women in three generations of her husband’s family have been diagnosed with the disease in their 20s. Paul Serhal, the fertility expert who treated the couple, said: ‘This little girl will not face the spectre of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life. ‘The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter. ‘The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations.’ Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) involves taking a cell from an embryo at the eight-cell stage of development, when it is around three-days old, and testing it. This is before conception – defined as when the embryo is implanted in the womb. Doctors then select […]