Nature Communications Paper Documents In-Utero Tumor Transmission Between Identical Twin Fetuses

A Nature Communications study reports pathological and genomic findings in identical twin girls in whom a tumor spread from one fetus to the other in utero via their shared placenta; both infants died soon after birth. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Great Ormond Street Hospital and other teams performed whole-genome sequencing and laser microdissection on 45 samples from the twins and their placenta, confirming the tumor originated in fetus A and metastasized to fetus B. The study also reviews a leukemia risk of roughly 15% to 25% in monochorionic twins and offers recommendations for screening pre-leukemia cells.