No increased risk of breast cancer from IVF

For many years, there’s been conflicting evidence – and a great deal of fear – that IVF might increase the risk of breast cancer in female fertility patients. But there is now good news for women undertaking IVF with the findings of a large 20-year study. A team of Dutch researchers followed over 25 000 women between 1980 and 1995 and concluded that IVF treatment compared with non-IVF treatment was not associated with increased risk of breast cancer.  You can access the complete paper online at JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2533505#ArticleInformation

or you can take a shortcut and check out an interview between Dr Norman Swan and one of the authors of the study, Alexandra van den Belt-Dusebout, from the Department of Epidemiology at the Netherlands Cancer ABC Radio National’s Health Report hInstitute. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/ivf-doesn’t-increase-risk-of-breast-cancer/7658018