Sperm donor with rare cancer-causing gene fathered nearly 200 children in Europe; FDA’s priority voucher delivers first approval; mobile DNA and lung tumors – Morning Medical Update

Sperm donor with rare cancer-causing gene fathered nearly 200 children in Europe

An investigation found that a sperm donor who unknowingly carried a TP53 mutation — linked to Li-Fraumeni syndrome — fathered nearly 200 children across 14 European countries. Some of the affected children have already developed cancer, and some have already died from it. The “vast majority” of the children who inherited the gene will develop cancer at some point in their life, experts say. Li-Fraumeni syndrome gives those affected a 90% chance to develop cancer, according to CBS News.

The news has prompted calls for stricter international rules on donor screening and usage limits. The donor passed standard checks when he began donating in 2005, and differing national regulations allowed his samples to be used far more widely than intended — by women trying to conceive across multiple countries over a 17-year span.

FDA’s priority voucher delivers its first approval

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the inaugural approval under its Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program, signing off on Augmentin XR after a sharply shortened, two-month review. The decades-old antibiotic, now made domestically by USAntibiotics, qualified for the voucher because it helps strengthen the U.S. supply of essential antimicrobials — one of the national priorities the program aims to promote.

Launched in June, the initiative is designed to cut review times from nearly a year to just weeks for products that bolster manufacturing resilience and other federal health goals.

Mobile DNA may drive aggressive lung tumors

A new National Institutes of Health (NIH)-led study suggests an unexpected driver behind some of the most aggressive lung adenocarcinomas — reawakened mobile DNA. Researchers analyzing more than 1,000 tumor genomes found that a subset of rapidly evolving cancers carried a mutational pattern tied to LINE-1, a normally silent stretch of DNA that can disrupt the genome when it switches on.

The team also reported that KRAS-mutant tumors, common in smokers, tend to grow and change quickly, while EGFR-mutant tumors evolve more slowly — potentially giving clinicians more time to detect and treat them. The findings were published in Nature.