There are certain prenatal tests that can pinpoint towards something wrong with mothers-to-be. Researchers said these tests may also hint about cancer, but very rarely. These days, prenatal blood tests are increasingly being used to detect fetal chromosome abnormalities.

In the noninvasive tests, blood sample is taken of pregnant women. The blood has small amounts of fetal DNA, said the researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association. An experiment was carried out in which blood tests of more than 100,000 women were taken and were processed for almost three years by a Redwood City, California, laboratory.

Out of the total, around 3% have suggested fetal chromosome abnormalities. There were 10 cases in which the babies turned out to be healthy, but women were having cancer, including lymphoma, leukemia and colon cancer.

The researchers have focused on eight of these women. Most of them have undergone prenatal tests, which indicated about more than one chromosome abnormality in the baby. In three women, cancer was detected when prenatal test results led to further testing.

Cancers of other women were discovered after women have developed symptoms and also, two women’s cancer condition became severe. Study’s lead researcher Dr. Diana Bianchi said that the test is uncovering about cancer cases, which were not even known.

But the researchers said that more research will be needed before it can be recommended that cancer testing should be done on all women whose tests have false-positive results.