It has transpired that ten kids, all from the same sperm donor, have developed cancer. This one donor is responsible for almost 70 children in total.
The rare genetic variant was found in ten kids. This inherited genetic disorder is known as Li-Fraumeni syndrome and creates a predisposition for cancer. When two of the children’s parents reached out to their respective sperm banks, they put two and two together.
It turns out that the sperm used by the European Sperm Bank, from this one particular donor, contained the genetic mutation. This sperm has since been used on 67 families. The European Sperm Bank did a study and found that the genetic disorder was found in some of the sperm used for donation.
They then went on to test the children who had been born using this sperm donor. In total, 23 were found to have inherited the variant. Of these, ten of the children born of the single donor had already had cancer. As a result of the genetic mutation, they had all been diagnosed with leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and other cancers.
Since then, the company responsible for distributing the sperm says it has reached out to all the fertility clinics that received this particular sample.
Calls For Changes In Donor Law After Kids Inherit Cancer Genes
The problem with sperm donation is that it is incredibly hard to test for genetic defects. Furthermore, many could exist in a person, and they’re not always immediately obvious. Some people may live with them their whole life without knowing. The man who donated the sperm that ended up giving kids a cancer disposition probably never knew.
“It is scientifically simply not possible to detect disease-causing mutations in a person’s gene pool if you don’t know what you are looking for,” Julie Paulli Budtz of European Sperm Bank stated. The donor was in good health, and the standard screening procedure would not have highlighted the genetic mutation.
Of course, there is no feasible way to do complete genome testing for every sperm donor to check for things like cancer that could be passed on to kids. However, limiting the number of families that receive one person’s donation could help with this situation in the future.
“This is the abnormal dissemination of genetic disease. Not every man has 75 children across Europe,” Dr. Edwige Kasper, a French biologist, stated. They are the person responsible for presenting this case before the European Society of Human Genetics conference in Milan. The hope to get the law surrounding sperm donation changed.