Researchers gave women who undergo in vitro fertilization to have a baby some good news this week when the biggest study of its kind found in-vitro fertilization didn’t increase women’s chances of developing breast cancer.
The new study was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association and was conducted by researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. It involved more than 25,000 women with a median follow-up of more than 20 years.
As in many complicated medical cases, experts say, more research is needed, especially on the topic of in-vitro fertilization and ovarian cancer. Last fall, British researchers published a large study that found that women who undergo such treatment are more than a third more likely to develop ovarian cancer than those who don’t get it.
At the time, those researchers cautioned that the connection might be partly caused by the patients’ underlying infertility — which is itself is a risk factor for ovarian cancer — rather than the treatment itself. And many scientists agree with that.
“I don’t think there is a direct link between IVF and ovarian cancer,” said Terri Woodard, assistant professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center. “There are many things that confuse the issue.”
Woodard said she was excited about the findings, adding that her patients routinely ask her whether their breast-cancer risk will rise, and now “we have a general, populationwide answer that says, no, we don’t think so.”
However, Mia Gaudet, the strategic director of breast and gynecologic cancer research at the American Cancer Society, said the ovarian-cancer issue remains “an open question,” calling the study encouraging but not conclusive.