Fertility drugs linked to leukaemia in new borns

A research by a team of French scientists revealed that babies have high risk of leukaemia born in mothers are on fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries.

Children were 2.6 times more likely to become ill with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the most common type of childhood leukaemia.They had a 2.3 fold risk of developing a rare cancer, acute myeloid leukaemia.

A team of French researchers , led by Dr Jeremie Rudant, from the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health at the INSERM research institute in Villejuif, Paris, say they cannot yet explain their findings.

The study — being presented at the Childhood Cancer 2012 conference in London — is the first to show a link between fertility drugs and childhood leukaemia.

A total of 2445 French children and their mothers took part in the study, comprising 764 children who had been diagnosed with leukaemia and 1681 who were free of the disease. Mothers were asked if they had taken more than a year to conceive a child, and questioned about the treatments they had received.

Dr Rudant said first time the study has been done on such larger scale and more research is now needed to investigate more closely the link between specific types of fertility drugs.

The study found no link between the fertility procedures like IVF,artificial insemination themselves and leukaemia.