Cancer risk not higher for IVF mums
Reported July 09, 2008
Women who undergo fertility treatment are no more likely to develop breast or ovarian cancer than any other female, an international review shows.
Australian fertility experts say the results of the study, presented at conference in Spain on Tuesday, should be reassuring to the 500,000 women who have gone through treatment since the first IVF baby was born in 1980.
Early studies suggested that fertility drugs to stimulate egg production could increase the risk of ovarian cancer.
While no further research has backed the findings, other studies have been too small to disprove the link, leaving uncertainty about the drugs’ influence on hormone-related cancers.
But a large-scale literature review by scientists at the US National Cancer Institute has allayed fears, concluding that “the data to date generally are reassuring in not showing large increases in cancer risk associated with the usage of fertility drugs”.
Among the studies reviewed was a Monash University survey of more than 16,000 women who have undergone the treatment.
Epidemiologist Dr Louise Brinton told the European Society of Human Reproduction meeting in Barcelona that their results were “positive”.
However, more research was needed on the lesser studied hormone-related cancers like melanoma and bowel cancer, the review states.
Professor Michael Chapman, director of IVF Australia, said the results were great news for the industry and the increasing number of women seeking treatment for fertility troubles.
“Women who had IVF in the 1980s and 90s are now getting to an age where an increased cancer risk would be obvious but, as the research shows, we’re not seeing it,” said Prof Chapman, who is attending the congress.
“We’ve always worried that the drugs we give over a very short period of time may stimulate something in the ovary that might lead to cancer and now we can be confident that that’s not the case.”
About 500,000 Australian women have taken part in fertility treatment in the past 30 years, with about 80,000 babies born as a result.
Success rates from one treatment cycle have jumped from 10 per cent to about 35 per cent over that time, Prof Chapman said.
© 2008 AAP
