IVF drugs linked to childhood cancer

The study looked at 764 French children diagnosed with acute leukaemia and 1,681 children who had not. Researchers asked their mothers for details of fertility problems and if they had sought fertility treatment, including whether the women had been treated with specific methods including IVF, artificial insemination or ovarian stimulation drugs.

Dr Jremi Rudant, of the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, INSERM, Villejuif, France, who led the research, said: "Previous studies have suggested a link between infertility treatments and acute childhood leukaemia, but there havent been many studies, most of them have been small, and they focused either on IVF or hormonal treatment.

"Our study was much larger and its the first time that a specific increased risk linked to fertility drugs has been found."

He accepted the study did not prove that fertility drugs caused cases of childhood leukaemia: "More research is now needed to investigate more closely the link between specific types of fertility drugs and what role the underlying causes of infertility may play in the potential development of childhood leukaemia."

The study also found that children of parents who struggled to conceive naturally - taking at least a year to do so - were 50 per cent more likely to develop ALL than children of fertile couples.

Oddly, it found no increase in the risk in children whose mothers had undergone IVF - even though almost all such women will have received ovarian stimulation drugs - or those who were artificially inseminated.

The research is being presented at the Childhood Cancer 2012 conference in London. It has not yet appeared in a peer-reviewed journal.

Ken Campbell, of the charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, said it was "plausible" that the drugs could make pre-natal conditions more conducive for the later development of childhood leukaemia. However, he urged caution.

He said: "This research is a long way from proving that A causes B. There are several alternative explanations."

The finding could be the result of methodological problems, he said, or that children of parents who had fertility treatment had a greater underlying chance of developing leukaemia for genetic reasons.

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IVF drugs linked to childhood cancer