IVF Does Not Increase Breast or Gynecological Cancer Risk

It turns out that in vitro fertilization (IVF) does not increase the risk of breast of gynecological cancers, according to new research. The findings set women who are receiving fertility treatments at ease.

The U.S. study, conducted by lead author Louise Brinton and colleagues, examined the medical records of 67,608 women who underwent IVF treatments between 1994 and 2011 and 19,795 additional women who sought treatment but never received IVF. The researchers then linked the files to a national cancer registry and found that a total of 1,509 of the women had been diagnosed with cancer through mid-2011.

These findings showed that there was no difference in a woman's chance of being diagnosed with breast or endometrial cancer based on whether they were treated with IVF or not, overturning previous studies that had linked IVF with cancer.

IVF is often associated with ovulation-stimulating drugs or a treatment which involves puncturing the ovaries in order to retrieve aids. Previously, researchers had believed that these treatments could result in an increased risk of cancer. Yet the association between the two had been difficult to untangle since it's hard to know whether unmeasured factors may affect the risk of cancer in women who have trouble conceiving. In addition, there haven't been a lot of cases of women who have developed cancer after fertility treatments in studies.

While researchers in this new study didn't see an increased risk overall, they did find that a woman's risk of ovarian cancer slightly increased if she received multiple rounds of treatment. However, scientists were quick to note that the finding could have been due to chance, or the fact that the primary problem with the women's ovaries could have led to the cancer rather than the IVF. There were only 45 cases of ovarian cancer in the entire study.

The research was published in PubMed.