Presence of fetal cells in women lowers risk of BC

....?... So ? What is the significance of this finding for current breat cancer patients?



For the first time, scientists have found what could be a causative link between the concentration of circulating Y-chromosome fetal cells in women who gave birth to children of either sex and their risk of later developing breast cancer and colon cancer. The findings show that the presence of fetal cells is a double-edged sword: Women with the lowest concentration of fetal cells were 70 percent less likely to have breast cancer, while women with the highest concentration of fetal cells had a four-fold increased risk for colon cancer when compared with healthy controls. The how and why of this contradictory role of fetal microchimerism is not known and requires more study, according to Vijayakrishna K. (V.K.) Gadi, M.D., Ph.D, an assistant member of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and senior author of a study that appears online in the European Journal of Cancer.