Articles labeled: cancer detection in babies

A new procedure that claims to use genetic screening to determine if infants will be cancer free in life is raising some doubts.

But the claim, NBC medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Monday, is misleading at best. And the screening that was done does not guarantee the child will not get cancer.

“I don’t think ‘guarantee’ is ever smart in medicine,” Snyderman said. She pointed out that the unidentified woman and her husband had used medical science to screen 11 embryos fertilized via the in vitro process for the presence of one gene, called BRCA-1. That gene had triggered breast cancer in the husband’s grandmother, mother, sister and cousin. Women who carry either the BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 gene have a 50 to 80 percent chance of developing breast cancer, usually at a young age.