VEECUBED community: Invitro Fertilised (IVF) babies are prone to Cancer- Study

Children born as a result of IVF are a third more likely to get cancer, a major study found.

Scientists said those born after fertility treatments were 33 per cent more likely to have childhood cancer.

They were 65 per cent more likely to develop leukaemia and 88 per cent more likely to develop cancers of the brain and central nervous system.

Children born as a result of IVF are more likely to develop childhood cancer

The study suggests fertility treatment may change the way certain genes function when they are passed from parent to child in a process known as ‘genomic imprinting’.

These faults in genes are linked to childhood cancers, the Danish researchers said.

They warned these changes could be triggered by aspects of fertility treatment such as exposure to hormones, semen preparation, freezing embryos, growth conditions of embryos or delayed insemination.

But they could not rule out the chance that the increased risk was the result of parents’ infertility, not the treatment.

Earlier this year, British research on more than 100,000 children born after fertility treatment found they had no increased risk of cancer.

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is among the most widely used fertility techniques, with around 18,000 IVF babies born in Britain each year.

The study suggests fertility treatment may change the way certain genes function when they are passed from parent to child in a process known as 'genomic imprinting'

An egg is removed from the woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm, then returned to the womb to grow.

The research, in the journal Fertility and Sterility, reviewed 25 studies from 12 developed countries, including the US, the UK, Denmark, France and Israel, from 1990 to 2010.

‘The etiology [origin] of childhood cancer is still largely unknown, but it has been hypothesized that fertility treatment may play a role.’