At least 67 children were conceived across Europe using the sperm of a man was later detected with a rare, cancer-causing gene mutation. Ten of those children have now been diagnosed with cancer.
The children were born between 2008 and 2015 in eight different countries. So far, 23 of them have been identified as carriers of the TP53 variant, The Guardian reported.
The TP53 gene, when mutated, is associated with a significantly heightened life-time risk of developing multiple forms of cancer, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukaemia, both of which have already been diagnosed in some of the donor-conceived children.
“We need to have a European limit on the number of births or families for a single donor,” said Dr Edwige Kasper, a biologist at Rouen university hospital in France. She added, “We can’t do whole-genome sequencing for all sperm donors – I’m not arguing for that. But this is the abnormal dissemination of genetic disease. Not every man has 75 children across Europe.”
The matter came to light after two families approached their fertility clinics upon discovering their children had cancer associated with the TP53 mutation. Following investigations, the European Sperm Bank confirmed that some of the donor’s sperm samples carried the harmful variant.
At the time of the donation in 2008, the mutation was not known to be cancer-causing and would not have been identified using routine genetic screening.
Children found to carry the gene are now being closely monitored with regular medical imaging, including full-body MRIs, brain and breast scans, and abdominal ultrasounds.
While the European Sperm Bank acknowledged that sperm from the donor had led to the birth of over 67 children, it said it does not confirm specific numbers of offspring per donor as part of its policy. It also claimed to have alerted all clinics that received sperm from the affected donor.
Health professionals now recommend that children carrying the TP53 variant undergo intensive, long-term medical monitoring. This includes whole-body MRI scans, brain and breast MRIs, and regular abdominal ultrasounds, tools necessary for early cancer detection in high-risk individuals.