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The balance of children born to different assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is shifting globally and in many countries, births to frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) now outnumber fresh embryo transfer. Prior studies have reported an association between singleton births after FET and risk of macrosomia, but findings relating to ART and childhood cancer risk are conflicting. After conducting a registry-based cohort study conducted across four Scandinavian countries, Nona Sargisian and colleagues report a higher risk of childhood cancer in children born after FET as compared to those born after fresh embryo transfer and spontaneous conception. Although these findings may raise concerns given the increasing popularity of FET, the authors note that their results ought to be interpreted cautiously considering the small number of children with cancer in the study. Sargisian et al 2022
Image Credit: DrKontogianniIVF, Pixabay
Citation: (2022) PLoS Medicine Issue Image | Vol. 19(9) October 2022. PLoS Med 19(9): ev19.i09. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pmed.v19.i09
Published: October 10, 2022
Copyright: © 2022 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The balance of children born to different assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is shifting globally and in many countries, births to frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) now outnumber fresh embryo transfer. Prior studies have reported an association between singleton births after FET and risk of macrosomia, but findings relating to ART and childhood cancer risk are conflicting. After conducting a registry-based cohort study conducted across four Scandinavian countries, Nona Sargisian and colleagues report a higher risk of childhood cancer in children born after FET as compared to those born after fresh embryo transfer and spontaneous conception. Although these findings may raise concerns given the increasing popularity of FET, the authors note that their results ought to be interpreted cautiously considering the small number of children with cancer in the study. Sargisian et al 2022
Image Credit: DrKontogianniIVF, Pixabay