(Press-News.org) London, 9 July 2013: Children born as a result of assisted reproduction (ART) are at no greater
risk of cancer than children born spontaneously in the general population, according to results
of one of the largest ever cohort studies of ART children. "This is reassuring news for couples
considering assisted conception, their subsequent children, fertility specialists and for the wider
public health," said the investigators.
Results of the study were presented today at the annual meeting of ESHRE by Dr Carrie
Williams from the Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK.
This was a large population-based linkage study between the Human Fertilisation & Embryology
Authority (HFEA, the UK's regulatory authority for ART clinics) and the UK's National Registry
of Childhood Tumours (NRCT).(1) The HFEA records of all 106,381 children born after
assisted conception in the UK from 1992 to 2008 were linked to NRCT records to calculate
the number of children who subsequently developed cancer. Once the databases were linked,
cancer rates in the ART cohort were compared with population rates, whilst stratifying for
potential mediating factors including birth weight, multiple births, treatment type and infertility
cause. The average duration of follow up was 6.6 years.
Results showed that there was no overall increased risk of cancer in ART children born
throughout the 17-year study period. Overall, 108 cancers were identified in the ART children,
which was comparable with the 109.7 cases which would have been expected from general
population figures.
However, increased risks were found for the development of certain rare cancer types, though
these findings were based on small numbers and the absolute excess risks were small. For
instance, significantly more children developed hepatic tumours than expected (6 vs. 1.83),
which translated to an added excess risk of 5.94 per million person-years. This excess risk was
also associated with a low birth weight.
However, none of the children born after assisted conception who did develop cancer were
recorded as having a co-morbidity consistent with an imprinting disorder. This again, said the
investigators, is reassuring. The possibility of an increased cancer risk in ART children has been
suggested by the discovery of altered epigenetic patterns in embryos.(2)
Commenting on the results, the study's principal investigator, Associate Professor Alastair
Sutcliffe from the Institute of Child Health in London, said: "This is the largest study of its kind
to be reported and is unique in that the data are derived from a single country and in a
homogeneous population. The absence of cancer in children - or in adults - can be considered a
measure of long-term health resilience, so we are happy to report that in the country where
IVF was first successfully applied there is no convincing evidence that ART children are at any
greater risk of cancer than those naturally conceived.
"It is true that we found increased risks of a few rare cancers, but these would need to be
studied across large international datasets to confirm if they were genuine findings or just an
effect of their very rareness."
Professor Sutcliffe described the overall study results as a "useful bellwether" [guide} for the
health of ART children, and future studies will address other unresolved questions over the
safety of IVF for mothers and their children.
A similar though smaller study reported at this congress produced comparable findings.(3) The
CoNARTaS cohort study from three Nordic countries also found that children and young
adults born after IVF had no overall increased risk of cancer when compared with children in
the general population. The study group comprised 92,809 children born after IVF between
1982 and 2007 (61,547 singletons and 31,262 multiples), and a matched control group from the
general population four times greater in number. Data on perinatal outcomes and cancer were
obtained by linkage to national registries.
A cancer diagnosis occurred in 143 children born after IVF (19/1000) and in 626 (18/1000)
children in the control group. The most common cancer diagnosis was leukaemia, which
occurred in 6/1000 children born after IVF and in 5/1000 in the control group.
###
Abstract 168, Tuesday 9 July 15.45 BST
Cancer risk in children born after assisted conception
Notes
1. UK law requires that all ART treatments and births are reported to the HFEA, and that all
cancers in children under 15 years are reported to the NRCT; this ensures complete population
coverage.
2. Epigenetics describes the changes in gene expression or phenotype which are not caused by
inherited genes. Modifications to the genome may be caused, for example, by environmental
factors or possibly by the process of in vitro fertilisation, causing genes to express themselves in
ways which are not explained by genetic inheritance. This may have effects on genomic
imprinting, in which one copy of inherited genes (from the father, for example) is not
expressed. Some small studies have suggested that the risk of two imprinting disorders,
Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and Angelman syndrome, may be increased in children
conceived by ART.
3. Abstract 330: Risk of cancer in children and young adults born after IVF – a Nordic cohort
study from the CoNARTaS group.
* When obtaining outside comment, journalists are requested to ensure that their contacts are
aware of the embargo on this release.
For further information on the details of this press release, contact:
Christine Bauquis at ESHRE
Mobile: +32 (0)499 25 80 46
Email: christine@eshre.eu
Large UK population study finds no increased cancer risk in children born after assisted conception
2013-07-09
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