October 15, 2010

expert reaction to news of the first babies born in the world’s first study to assess comprehensive genetic screening before IVF

The study reported the birth of several babies conceived through IVF and genetically screened using the established technique of comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) by microarray, which screens for chromosomal abnormalities in eggs.

Dr Dagan Wells, expert in infertility and genetics, University of Oxford, said:

“This is probably the first study to look at this technique in a rigorous well planned way. My lab has done more than 100 cycles of microarray CGH this year. It’s already well established and we know it helps – but what we really need this study to tell us is just how much it is helping.

“This proof of concept study is a welcome addition, but doesn’t tell us much more than we already knew. What we now need is to see the full results of the much larger randomised trial.”

Mr Stuart Lavery MRCOG, Consultant Gynaecologist, Director IVF Hammersmith, said:

“This is good but not groundbreaking news. We’ve had a birth here at Hammersmith following cgh polar body testing with microarray and currently have about 10 ongoing pregnancies!”

Dr Simon Fishel, Managing Director, CARE Fertility Group, said:

“I am very pleased that ESHRE have, with these births, confirmed the work that CARE Fertility pioneered in the UK in 2008, resulting in the world first birth. This is the very technology and same procedures pioneered by us (in Britain) that produced Baby Oliver – which was announced at the SMC as a pregnancy in January 2009. They are using the exact same arrays as the ones from our work developed with the Cambridge team. So the announcement is not the world’s first study and not the world’s first babies. It is gratifying that CARE’s ongoing success with this technology has been replicated. However, EHSRE is undertaking a ‘controlled’ study, and it is important for all the data of that study to be published so practitioners can assess the value of the study as a whole – this particular announcement does not yet move forward into widespread use the prospects for our exciting technology.”

Dr Alan Thornhill, Scientific Director The London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre, said:

“This is the first study of this type but is by no means the first successful use of the technology and approach. If the proposed large scale clinical trial demonstrates a clear benefit of analysing both polar bodies, we will modify our approach accordingly.”