Women who undergo IVF trwatment Have High Risk to Ovarian Cancer - Studies Show

The study’s authors say the most probable explanation is that the underlying problems making women infertile also put them at greater risk of cancer. But they admit there is a small possibility that the treatment itself is to blame.

Women were in most danger from ovarian cancer in the three years after starting IVF.

This, along with the fact that the risk was greater among younger women, supports the theory that the treatment itself is linked to disease. Previous research has suggested that IVF drugs may promote cancer growth. 

 


 

IVF patients are a third more likely to develop ovarian cancer, a landmark UK study suggests.

 

Doctors say the extra risk shows the need for women to be screened for the disease following fertility treatment.

 

Scientists analyzed the records of all the 255,000 Britons who have had IVF over the past two decades. Initial results to be revealed in Baltimore today show those who have had help to conceive are 37 per cent more likely than other women to develop ovarian cancer.

 

This suggests the danger comes from stimulating the ovaries to produce multiple eggs instead of just one. Even if this were true though the chance of getting cancer is still very low.

 

Alastair Sutcliffe, the professor in charge of the University College London study, said he was convinced IVF itself was not at fault.

‘This internationally-unique study suggests little for women to worry about regarding the risk of cancers and the drug treatments they undergo to have a baby with IVF,’ he said.

 
Professor Geeta Nargund, medical director of Create Fertility, which has five UK clinics, said the findings called for caution. ‘This is a very important study,’ she said. ‘Not enough has been done to safeguard the health and safety of women undergoing IVF in the UK.

 

‘The causative factors at the moment are not clear – but until they are we should support cancer screening on the NHS. And we have an obligation to give women robust information that allows them to make informed decisions.’

 

Katherine Taylor, of Ovarian Cancer Action, said the relative increase in risk was significant although the absolute risk of getting ovarian cancer remained low.

Results from the study – the largest ever investigation of possible links between IVF and cancer – will be released at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s conference