Table 1.
Selected characteristics of 16 cohort studies of fertility treatment and childhood cancers
| First author, Year | Study period | Geographic region | Follow‐up (years) | Exposure | Unexposed population | Reported cancers | No. of | Adjustments or matches made | Quality score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cancers/total exposed1 | Cancers/total unexposed1 | |||||||||
| Doyle 1998 | 1978–1991 | United Kingdom | 8.6 (mean) | ART | General population | Overall cancer | 2/2,507 | 3.5 (expected) | None | 6 |
| Bruinsma 2000 | 1979–1995 | Australia | 3.75 (median) | ART | General population | Overall cancer | 6/5,249 | 4.33 (expected) | Age | 8 |
| Lerner‐Geva 2000 | 1981–1994 | Israel | 4.3 (mean) | ART | General population | Overall cancer | 0/332 | 1.7 (expected) | Age, gender, and year of diagnosis | 7 |
| Klip 2001 | 1980–1995 | Netherlands | 6.0 (mean) | Fertility treatment | Subfertility/infertility disorder but conceived naturally | Overall cancer | 7/9,479 | 9/7,521 | Gender | 7 |
| Bradbury 2004 | 1989–2001 | United Kingdom | Not stated | ART | Spontaneous conception | Retinoblastoma | 0/176 | 24/358,094 | None | 6 |
| Kallen 2005 | 1982–2001 | Sweden | 5.5 (median) | ART | General population | Leukemia and hepatic tumours | 29/16,000 | 21.4 (expected) | Age, maternal age, parity, and smoking habits in early pregnancy | 9 |
| Lidegaard 2005 | 1995–2001 | Denmark | 4.1 (mean) for ART group, 4.5 (mean) for the non‐ART group | ART | Spontaneous conception | Leukemia, retinoblastoma and renal tumours | 0/6,052 | 72/442,349 | None | 6 |
| Kallen 2010 | 1982–2005 | Sweden | Not stated | ART | General population | Overall cancer, CNS tumours and retinoblastoma | 53/26,692 | 6405/2,417,878 | Age, maternal age, parity, smoking, and years of unwanted childlessness | 9 |
| Pinborg 2010 | 1995–2007 | Denmark | 5.4 (mean) for the ART group, 5.3 (mean) for the non‐ART group | ART | Spontaneous conception | Overall cancer | 6/11,286 | 1/4,800 | Age | 7 |
| Williams 2013 & 2018 | 1992–2008 | United Kingdom | 6.6 (mean) /7.86 (mean) | ART | General population | Overall cancer, CNS tumours, neuroblastoma, leukemia, retinoblastoma, renal tumours, hepatic tumours, bone tumours and extraosseous sarcomas, and germ‐cell tumours | 120/118,150 | 124.1 (expected) | Age and gender | 8/8 |
| Sundh 2014 | 1982–2007 | Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway | 9.5 (mean) | ART | Spontaneous conception | Overall cancer, CNS tumours, neuroblastoma, leukemia, lymphoma, retinoblastoma, renal tumours, hepatic tumours, bone tumours and extraosseous sarcomas, and germ‐cell tumours | 181/91,796 | 638/358,419 | Country, maternal age, parity, gender, gestational age, birth defects and chromosomal aberrations | 8 |
| Hargreave 2015 | 1964–2006 | Denmark | Not stated | Fertility drugs | Subfertility/infertility disorder but conceived naturally | Overall cancer, CNS tumours, leukemia, and lymphoma | 88/1,017 | 60/1,003 | Age | 7 |
| Reigstad 2016 | 1984–2011 | Norway | 6.9 (median) for the ART group, 13.7 (median) for the non‐ART group | ART | Spontaneous conception | Overall cancer, CNS tumours, neuroblastoma, leukemia, lymphoma, retinoblastoma, renal tumours, hepatic tumours, bone tumours and extraosseous sarcomas, and germ‐cell tumours | 51/25,782 | 4503/1,602,876 | Age, birth order, maternal age at delivery, place of birth, gender, birthweight and gestational age | 9 |
| Lerner‐Geva 2017 | 1997–2011 | Israel | 10.6 (median) for the ART group, 9.3 (median) for the non‐ART group | ART | Spontaneous conception | Overall cancer, CNS tumours, neuroblastoma, leukemia, lymphoma, retinoblastoma, renal tumours, bone tumours and extraosseous sarcomas, and germ‐cell tumours. | 21/9,042 | 361/211,763 | Maternal age, maternal education, ethnicity, plurality, gender, birthweight, congenital malformations | 9 |
| Wainstock 2017 | 1991–2013 | Israel | 10.55 (median) | Fertility treatment | Spontaneous conception | Overall cancer | 14/4,324 | 415/237,863 | Maternal age, birthweight, preterm birth, pregnancy‐related hypertensive disorders, and pregestational and gestational diabetes mellitus | 7 |
Abbreviations: ART, assisted reproductive technology; CNS, central nervous system.
1
When other types of cancer were reported along with overall cancer in the same study, only the data on overall cancer were shown.