Genetic screening could be offered to all couples undergoing IVF in future following the development of new tests which can dramatically increase the chance of success.
Scientists have announced the birth of the first baby using a new genome sequencing technique which could “revolutionise” fertility treatment, bringing down the costs of tests which could boost pregnancy rates by up to 50 per cent.
Less than one third of embryos chosen via standard IVF will implant in the womb and generate a pregnancy.
Research has previously found genetic screening to select healthy embryos over those with abnormal chromosones can significantly increase the chance of successful treatment.
Scientists said the new technique could further improve implantation rates, and that its cost - which could be as little as half that of other genetic screening methods - could mean that in future it is used routinely for couples with fertility problems.
The findings, presented today at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting in London, were described by independent experts as crossing “an exciting frontier” in the science of IVF.
Scientists said that the first baby was born using the technique seven weeks ago, while a second child is due to be born to a 39-year-old woman shortly.
Marybeth Scheidts, 36, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States, gave birth to a baby boy Connor in May, after she and her husband David, 41, were the first to try a new method of identifying viable IVF embryos as part of a research trial.
The technique, known as next-generation sequencing (NGS) uses computer software to search for serious gene defects and key sequences of DNA that indicate abnormalities.
Because of its speed and efficiency, NGS has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of embryo screening, scientists said.
Existing screening techniques add around £3,000 to the costs of IVF treatment, which is currently around £5,000 per cycle.
The new method could reduce the cost of screening by at least one third, and possibly half, experts said, and the higher rate of success meant there would be an economic argument for offering it widely.
Dr Dagan Wells, from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Oxford University, who led the study, said: “This is a very powerful method. We can look at all 24 different types of chromosomes and get a result in 24 hours, and do this at a cost a half to two-thirds that of current screening techniques.
“I think we’re getting to the point where there would be a strong economic argument to offer this to the majority of IVF patients. We may cross a threshold where the economic argument makes the NHS look at this very seriously.”
Researchers said a randomised clinical trial would begin later this year to examine its efficacy further.
At the age of 30, around one quarter of women’s eggs will contain chromosomal abnormalities, which usually prevent pregnancy, or result in miscarriage.
The likelihood rises sharply with age, with abnormalities present in three quarters of eggs of women in their early 40s.
The new screening method means that a chromosominally normal blastocyst [a five day embryo] selected from a woman of 40 was “pretty much as good” as those in women ten years younger, Dr Wells said.
However, if no viable embryo could be found, there would be no chance of success, he said.
“The patients it would probably work best for is probably patients in their younger 30s - between 30 and 38, because they almost always have one normal embryo, but the difficulty is finding it,” he said.
Embryo screening involves separating out embryos with the best chance of producing a pregnancy from those with chromosomal abnormalities.
Traditionally it has involved a “beauty contest” in which technicians pick out the best-looking embryos for transfer to the womb.
But this technique is highly unreliable, since even an embryo that appears “textbook perfect” under a microscope can harbour hidden chromosomal defects.
Stuart Lavery, consultant gynaecologist at the IVF unit at Hammersmith Hospital, said the findings were “signficant” while Prof Roy Farquharson, consultant in obstetrics & gynaecology, at Liverpool Women’s Hospital said the advances crossed “an exciting frontier”.
In the study, scientists tested the accuracy of the method by conducting tests on multiple cells with known chromosomal abnormalities and genetic mutations.
The same technique was then tried on cells taken from embryos produced by Mrs Scheidts and her husband, who were enrolled in the trial, in their first IVF attempt after five years of trying to start a family.
She said: “Infertility is a hard thing to go through - we had three attempts at artificial insemination and that hadn’t worked, so when we heard about this research, it seemed such an opportunity. Now we have Connor and couldn’t be happier; I’m just hoping that advances like this will help othe people to avoid the heartache that can come with trying to start a family.”
Under current NHS guidelines, women under the age of 40 who cannot get pregnant should qualify for three cycles of free IVF treatment on the NHS, with some treatment available for older women. However, financial restrictions mean in many parts of the country, couples are offered just one cycle.
Laura Donnelly - telegraph.co.uk
