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E. Shyam P. Reddy: Cancer is more likely to develop in babies born with congenital heart disease and in their mothers

E. Shyam P. Reddy/LinkedIn

Mar 24, 2025, 18:40

E. Shyam P. Reddy: Cancer is more likely to develop in babies born with congenital heart disease and in their mothers

E. Shyam P. Reddy, Professor and Director of the Cancer Biology Program, Department of OB/GYN at Morehouse School of Medicine, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Cancer is more likely to develop in babies born with congenital heart disease (CHD) and in their mothers, a study of 3.5 million Korean births suggests.

The findings, in the journal Circulation, indicate that either a mother’s genetic predisposition or the mutations she carries could contribute to both conditions in her children. They suggest that examining maternal health could be an important factor in congenital heart disease.

The research points to the multifaceted causes behind cancer and stresses the need for multidisciplinary care for both babies born with congenital heart disease and their mothers, the researchers said.

‘Our research highlights the importance of maternal factors and genetic traits and understanding how they may be connected. The genetic variants inherited from the mother may provide the necessary environment for cancer to develop in congenital heart defect patients, highlighting a possible shared genetic pathway underlying both conditions.’ said investigator June Huh, PhD, from Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul.

The team studied information on 3,550,113 live births between 2005 and 2019 on the Korean National Health Insurance Service database, which included 72,205 babies who were born with congenital heart disease.

Cancer was identified if the same International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) cancer code was present at least three times within a year in the medical records or an inpatient hospitalization with a C code.

The 19,310 mothers who had a history of cancer were excluded from the study analysis.

During a median follow-up of just over 10 years, the incidence of cancer was 66% higher among babies born with congenital heart defects than in those without congenital heart disease.

Newborns with isolated valve or vessel lesions had a 2.29 times greater cancer incidence if they had congenital heart disease than if they did not. The next highest was the risk for those with complex congenital heart disease and isolated shunt lesions.

Ovarian cancer, liver cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma were the cancer types significantly associated with congenital heart defects.

The incidence of cancer was a significant 17% higher for mothers who had given birth to babies with congenital heart disease.

‘The high rate of liver cancer among the children may reflect high right-sided filling pressures and cardiac cirrhosis or high central venous pressure in single-ventricle patients,’ the investigators suggested.

‘In conclusion, this nationwide study demonstrates a notable association between CHD in newborns and an elevated risk of cancer in both these newborns and their mothers. This insight into the multifaceted etiology of cancer in individuals with CHD calls for a multidisciplinary approach to care.’ they reported.”

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