Children born after medically assisted reproduction (MAR) are at an increased risk of developing leukemia, according to a recently published study in JAMA Network Open.
Among the more than 8.5 million children with a median age of 6.4 years born in France between 2010 and 2021, the overall risk of cancer was the same among those conceived naturally and those born after fresh embryo transfer (hazard ratio of 1.12), frozen embryo transfer (hazard ratio of 1.02), or artificial insemination (hazard ratio of 1.09). A hazard ratio compares the occurrence of an event between two groups. A hazard ratio of 1 indicates equal event occurrence between treatment and control groups.
