Belgium investigates how 52 children were born to sperm donor with potentially cancer-causing gene

Belgium is investigating how a Danish sperm donor with a potentially cancer-causing gene fathered 52 children in the country between 2008 and 2017, the Belgian Health Ministry announced on Friday (30), in a case involving several European countries.

The donor, who appeared to be in good health and had no known family history of cancer, complied with regulatory standards at the time of donation.

However, it was later discovered that he carried a mutation of the TP53 gene, linked to Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS), a rare inherited disorder that significantly increases the risk of cancer, an investigation by British newspaper The Guardian revealed.

At least 10 cases of cancer have been detected among the 67 children born from his donations across Europe, the newspaper said. The donor's sperm was used in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Ireland, Greece, the Netherlands and Poland.

The alert was issued in 2023 after cancer cases were identified in some children conceived from their donations at a clinic in Denmark. That same year, the Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products was notified.

But Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said he only became aware of the case on Monday. "This information should have been passed on immediately to the competent minister," his spokesman said.

An internal review identified 37 affected families in Belgium, where 52 children were born from these donations between 2008 and 2017. Authorities stressed that not all of them necessarily reside in Belgium.

The scandal has exposed apparent violations of Belgian law, which since 2007 has limited the use of sperm from the same donor to a maximum of six women. “This rule has been exceeded at national level and in individual centers,” the ministry said.

The Belgian government declined to say whether any cancer cases had been diagnosed in Belgium.

adc/jca/def/srg/sag/lm/am