Maternal Cancers Detected Through Prenatal Blood Tests
Screening for abnormalities in prenatal blood may help detect hidden cancers in pregnant persons. A recent National Institutes of Health study screened 107 pregnant or postpartum persons who received unusual or unreportable cell-free DNA (cfDNA) sequencing results. Cancer was present in almost half of the participants, nearly all of whom had the same sequencing pattern across 3 or more chromosomes. The individuals, who were 33 years old on average, had not noticed any obvious clinical symptoms of cancer. Most of the cancers were determined to be lymphoma, followed by colorectal and breast cancers, among others.
Screening for abnormalities in prenatal blood may help detect hidden cancers in pregnant persons. A recent National Institutes of Health study screened 107 pregnant or postpartum persons who received unusual or unreportable cell-free DNA (cfDNA) sequencing results. Cancer was present in almost half of the participants, nearly all of whom had the same sequencing pattern across 3 or more chromosomes. The individuals, who were 33 years old on average, had not noticed any obvious clinical symptoms of cancer. Most of the cancers were determined to be lymphoma, followed by colorectal and breast cancers, among others.
