Children conceived from frozen embryos may have an increased likelihood of developing leukaemia, recent research suggests.
The French study looked at data from over 8.5 million children, and found that the overall risk of cancer did not differ between children conceived naturally compared to those born as a result fresh embryo transfer following IVF or ICSI or artificial insemination. However, the those born following frozen embryo transfer had a slightly increased risk of developing leukaemia.
'The study suggests a slight increase in total (absolute numbers) of children diagnosed with leukaemia when conceived with ... frozen thawed embryos and to a lesser degree fresh embryo transfer,' explained Alastair Sutcliffe, professor of general paediatrics at the University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, who was not involved in the study. 'However, overall cancer risk is similar to the naturally conceived children. This is overall consistent with other studies'.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics used data from the French National Mother-Child Register to analyse the risk of childhood cancer among children born in France from 2010 to 2021. The study is the largest to date based on high-quality registry data of all live births associated hospitalisation and follow-up health data.
The cohort was followed for an average of six years, until June 2022 to compare children born after fertility treatment with those conceived naturally.
The overall risk of cancers did not significantly differ between naturally conceived children and those born as a result of fertility treatment. However, the risk of a specific type of blood cancer named acute lymphoblastic leukaemia which accounts for a quarter of all childhood cancers, was found to be 23 percent higher among children born after frozen embryo transfers compared to naturally conceived children. The authors also found an increased risk of leukaemia among children born after fresh embryo transfers between 2010-2015, when fresh transfers were more common than frozen.
The authors acknowledged that their study does not prove that in vitro conception is the cause of the increased risk, but suggested that it needs to be monitored as use of fertility treatment continues to grow.
'It's important to remember that the risk for children developing leukaemia remains low,' said Dr Richard Francis, deputy director of research at Blood Cancer UK, who was not involved in the study. 'For those going through, or who have a young child from assisted conception these findings shouldn't be something to worry about'.
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