Cancer

A cancer patient has given birth to a healthy baby boy after a 1.5-tonne shield was designed and built to protect her and the unborn child while she underwent radiotherapy.

Sarah Best is believed to be the first woman in Britain to have a baby after receiving such a course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy during a pregnancy.

Best went into labour minutes after completing her treatment and her son, Jake, was born more than a month earlier than expected. Both mother and child are thriving. Thirty-year-old Best was four months pregnant with her first child when doctors told her she had mouth cancer. Surgeons removed a tumour from her tongue but discovered the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. Best, from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, was told the cancer could spread if she did not have radiotherapy. To protect the unborn child two lead shields, each 5cm thick, were built to encase her bump during daily 20-minute long radiotherapy sessions.

 One shield was suspended just above her bump and a second larger slab was held in place at her side to prevent potentially harmful beams reaching the baby. "I was devastated when I was told I had cancer," Best said. "The surgeons managed to remove most of it but they said they saw specks of cancer cells on my lymph nodes. "They told me I had to have the radiotherapy or the cancer would spread and I'd have to have another operation in a couple of years. I just thought I wanted to kill the cancer now. "I was really worried about the effect the radiotherapy could have on the baby but the doctors said the lead shield would protect him." Best underwent 32 days of radiotherapy at Coventry's University Hospital and also had daily chemotherapy sessions. Minutes after finishing her last day of treatment Best went into labour five weeks early and after three hours gave birth to 4lb 10oz Jake. Sarah, a child support officer, said: "It all happened so fast. I was expecting to have Jake at least a month after my treatment ended but I suddenly went into labour on the last day of my treatment. The nurses just wheeled me down the corridor to the labour ward where I had Jake. He is our mini miracle. He is so special to us and thankfully is perfectly healthy. He is healthy, smiley and smart – I couldn't be luckier."

 Consultant oncologist Lydia Fresco, who helped design and build the protective baby-shield, said: "Sarah's case was extremely rare. As far as published cases go she was the only woman with mouth cancer in the world to have this combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy while pregnant." "The combination is very aggressive and is never usually considered for pregnant women because of the risks to the unborn baby. "Because Sarah was young and very fit and the cancer was in her head and neck it was decided that this combination of treatments would be safe to use. "I have never heard of any other examples of pregnant woman having cancer and being treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the UK."

 Best has been given the all clear from cancer but will have regular check-ups to ensure it does not return.