Overall cancer risk not increased for children born after assisted reproduction

The overall risk for cancer is not increased for children born after medically assisted reproduction (MAR), according to a study published online May 2 in JAMA Network Open.

Paula Rios, M.D., Ph.D., from the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety in Saint-Denis, and colleagues compared the risk for cancer overall and by cancer type among children born after fresh embryo transfer (ET), frozen ET (FET), or artificial insemination (AI) and children conceived naturally. Data were included for 8,526,306 children with a mean age of 6.4 years.

Overall, 260,236 children (3.1 percent) were born after MAR, including 1.6, 0.8, and 0.7 percent after fresh ET, FET, and AI, respectively. The researchers found that during a median follow-up of 6.7 years, there were 9,256 case patients with cancer: 165, 57, and 70 were born after fresh ET, FET, and AI, respectively.

There was no difference observed in the overall risk for cancer for children conceived naturally and those born after fresh ET, FET, or AI. Children born after FET did have an increased risk for acute lymphoblastic leukemia compared with those conceived naturally (hazard ratio, 1.61). For children born between 2010 and 2015, a higher risk for leukemia was seen after fresh ET (hazard ratio, 1.42).

“Our findings suggest that children born after FET or fresh ET may have an increased risk of leukemia,” the authors write. “This risk, although resulting in a limited number of cases, needs to be monitored in view of the continuous increase in the use of assisted reproductive technologies.”

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