A small number of British women received sperm from a donor with a cancer-causing gene while seeking fertility treatment abroad, a regulator has said.
A sperm donor with a genetic mutation that increases the risk of cancer by up to 90% fathered at least 197 children across Europe, it was reported.
The number includes a “very small” number of UK women who received sperm from the donor while getting fertility care in Denmark, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said.
The HFEA said it understood all of the women have been informed.
The unnamed man was paid to donate sperm as a student and his sperm was used for around 17 years, the BBC reported.
The man passed donor screening tests, but the BBC reported 20% of his sperm carry a genetic mutation of the TP53 gene.
The DNA of any child born using the affected sperm will carry the mutation.
The TP53 gene protects against cancer by controlling the growth of cells, but people with a change in the gene have Li-Fraumeni syndrome.
People with the syndrome have up to 90% increased risk of developing cancer before they turn 60, including breast cancer, brain tumours, osteosarcoma, soft tissue sarcomas and childhood cancers.
Affected people have regular monitoring to check for tumours.
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The HFEA confirmed the man’s sperm was not distributed to licensed UK clinics.
In the UK, a donor’s sperm can only be used to create children in up to 10 families, but different countries have different limits.
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‘Highly unfortunate coincidence’
Clare Turnbull, professor of cancer genetics at The Institute of Cancer Research in London, said: “This represents a highly unfortunate coincidence of two exceptionally unusual events: that the donor’s sperm carry mutations for an extremely rare genetic condition affecting fewer than one in 10,000 people and that his sperm has been used in the conception of such an extraordinarily large number of children.
“Li-Fraumeni syndrome is a devastating diagnosis to impart to a family. There is a very high risk of cancer throughout the lifetime.”
