Prenatal test saves mother’s life after detecting kidney cancer during pregnancy

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC/Gray News) - Heidi and Cody Neas say they learned in the summer of 2024 that they would have another baby.

Not only were they excited about welcoming their second little one to the family, but the journey ended up helping save the mother’s life.

During her second appointment, Heidi Neas says she was offered an optional genetic test called noninvasive prenatal testing, a blood screening that analyzes fragments of DNA from the placenta to look for chromosomal abnormalities.

Heidi Neas got a call a week after her test, stating something was wrong.

“I was out on a work trip and she called me just beside herself,” Cody Neas said. “We went through several weeks thinking, you know, we had a problem with the baby.”

NIPT is designed to detect potential disorders for the baby, but in rare cases, it points to maternal cancer.

With baby Abram developing normally, the attention shifted to Heidi Neas. She was referred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to work with genetic counselor Olivia Kesler and maternal-fetal medicine physician Carolyn Webster.

“We went through all of her medical history, her blood work, she was up to date on all of her routine screenings, so nothing stood out,” Webster said.

Kesler got to work analyzing Heidi Neas’ family medical history.

“I think most people have heard that knowing all that you can about your family medical history is important, but this case is very unique in that it is the one thing we had to go on and the one thing that guided next steps in her care,” Kesler said.

That one significant clue was that Heidi Neas’ father had kidney cancer in his 60s.

“At that point, we decided to offer her a look at her kidneys with an ultrasound. This is not a typical part of an obstetric ultrasound for any woman,” Webster said. “I just couldn’t shake the feeling that we needed to take a look.”

Heidi Neas added, “I’m not skilled to look at an ultrasound by any means, but I couldn’t miss it.”

The next steps happened quickly, Webster said.

Heidi Neas was scheduled for formal imaging later that day, which confirmed the mass.

At 15 weeks pregnant, she was diagnosed with cancer.

“My faith, that’s it,” Heidi Neas said.

Cody Neas added, “We went through several weeks of figuring out how we were going to address it. ”One of them kind of commented, as pregnant as she was, you could be picking between him or her or both. It was a very tough situation for everybody.”

Webster worked with oncologist Charles Peyton to develop a treatment plan.

“Usually, the first thing that I ask when I am talking to a doctor caring for a high-risk condition in a woman who happens to be pregnant is asking them, What would you do if she weren’t pregnant? And we start from there,” Webster said. “If we can safely do that, we’ll go with that route. If we feel like it’s too high risk, we alter it.”

Doctors performed an open nephrectomy and removed all traces of the disease.

“I do remember the first thing I said when I came out of the surgery, I was groggy, but I was still, I was still pretty with it,” Heidi Neas said. “Do we have a heartbeat?”

It was strong and steady. “I’ll never forget it,” she said.

Recovery took weeks, and as Heidi Neas healed, Abram grew stronger.

At 37 weeks, she delivered a perfectly healthy baby as a perfectly healthy mom.

“When he finally got here, oh, I just, just absolutely relieved. I’m just amazed and thankful,” Heidi Neas said.

Cody Neas added, “So many times I think God hands a difficult circumstance and life gives us a lot of options to get around it. But sometimes if you just, if you’ll chart a straight course through it and trust Him, there’ll be a better story than you could ever think about on the end of it.”

The National Institutes of Health launched a study in 2019 to investigate the link between abnormal noninvasive prenatal testing results and cancer.

Researchers looked at 100 women who had irregular results and healthy babies, like Heidi Neas, and found nearly half of the women had cancer.

“Ultimately, I don’t know how long this mass had been there, but it was not causing her any symptoms, so it’s quite possible that the mass could have gone undetected far beyond her pregnancy,” Webster said. “That is something that she and I and the genetic counselor kind of talked about. This test saved her life, with her baby being part of her story.”

Heidi Neas continues to return to UAB every four months for scans to ensure the cancer has not returned. She did not require chemotherapy or radiation.

“We have looked where God has brought us, look where we’re at, and waking up each day with a grateful heart,” she said.