The landmark ruling from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will permit thousands of women who carry the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes to spare their daughters a genetic inheritance that confers an 80 per cent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.

The move, which also applies to a third gene that predisposes to bowel cancer, has won the backing of the watchdog’s ethics and law committee, and is expected to be confirmed at a meeting in Belfast.

People who know that they have the BRCA1, BRCA2 or HNPCC colon cancer genes will be able to seek IVF treatment, during which a single cell is removed from the embryos for testing. Only embryos without those genes would be used.

The decision will deepen controversy over “designer babies”, as it significantly extends the inherited conditions that can be prevented by “cherry-picking” embryos.

The screening procedure, known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), is at present approved only for mutations that lead to at least a 90 per cent chance of developing a disease.

The genes covered by the recommendations carry a lifetime cancer risk of 80 per cent, which can be substantially reduced by preventive surgery, such as a double mastectomy, chosen by many women who test positive for BRCA1 or BRCA2.

Critics said that the move marked a further step down a “slippery slope”, which was permitting screening for ever less serious genetic traits. “The current calculations put late onset of these conditions at an 80 per cent risk level, and for diseases that are treatable,” Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said. “A previous licence decision was based on a penetration rate of 90 per cent. Will it be 50-50 next time?”

Patient groups, however, welcomed the recommendation as a measure that would help families that have suffered genetic disease in several generations.

The first application for a licence to perform PGD for breast cancer is expected within weeks. Paul Serhal, of University College Hospital in London, has seen ten patients with BRCA genes who want the procedure, and other clinics are also ready to conduct it.

In 2004 The Times disclosed that Mr Serhal had won the first HFEA licence to screen embryos for a form of bowel tumour that affects 90 per cent of those who inherit the gene. He has since received a further licence to screen for the eye cancer retinoblastoma. He said that it would be hard for the HFEA to justify refusing permission to screen for the BRCA and HNPCC genes, given its earlier decisions. “This has the potential to reduce the incidence of serious diseases and reduce costs as far as ongoing medical care is concerned,” he said.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 also raise the risk of ovarian cancer to 40 per cent. Together they account for about 5 per cent of the 41,700 cases of breast cancer in Britain each year. HNPCC, or hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer, confers a 90 per cent risk of bowel cancer for men, and 70 per cent for women, by the age of 70. It accounts for up to 5 per cent of 34,900 annual cases in Britain.

The results of a public consultation on the ethics of using the screening for cancers caused by BRCA and HNPCC genes will also be released at the Belfast meeting. The authority will also decide whether PGD for these conditions will have to be approved case by case, or whether licences can be fast-tracked, as already happens with well-established applications of the technology.

• A man who is suffering from breast cancer has been told that his local NHS trust will pay for him to be treated with Herceptin.

  Stuart Weaver, 37, from Maidstone, Kent, is one of about 300 men a year in Britain who develop breast cancer. Tests have shown that he is suitable for treatment with Herceptin, which in medical trials has significantly increased survival.

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THE PROPOSAL

• Cancer genes that confer an 80 per cent disease risk are “serious genetic conditions”
  
• Late onset and treatability should not be barriers to embryo screening
  
• Embryo screening for these genes is “appropriate in principle”
  
• Guidelines to be approved at HFEA meeting in Belfast tomorrow
  

  'Screening? It's a no-brainer'
  

  KARIN COHN is in no doubt about the need for screening. She is recovering from a double mastectomy, which she chose as a pre-emptive measure after she was found to be carrying the BRCA1 gene.
  
  The genetic legacy has dogged her family. Her younger sister found out that she had breast cancer last year, her mother had the disease, her grandmother and great-grandmother died of ovarian cancer and three other relatives have had such cancers. All had the BRCA1 gene.
  
  “Anyone who has experienced what a gene like this can do to a family would have no doubts about embryo screening,” she said. “If it had been available when I started my family, it would have been a no-brainer. This should be made as easy as getting IVF.”

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