Current Oncology (Aug 2022)

The Use of Assisted Reproductive Technology by European Childhood Cancer Survivors

  • Anja Borgmann-Staudt,
  • Simon Michael,
  • Greta Sommerhaeuser,
  • Marta-Julia Fernández-González,
  • Lucía Alacán Friedrich,
  • Stephanie Klco-Brosius,
  • Tomas Kepak,
  • Jarmila Kruseova,
  • Gisela Michel,
  • Anna Panasiuk,
  • Sandrin Schmidt,
  • Laura Lotz,
  • Magdalena Balcerek

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol29080453
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 29, no. 8
pp. 5748 – 5762

Abstract

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CCS often wish to have biological children yet harbour concerns about fertility impairment, pregnancy risks and the general health risks of prospective offspring. To clarify these concerns, health outcomes in survivor offspring born following ART (n = 74, 4.5%) or after spontaneous conception (n = 1585) were assessed in our European offspring study by descriptive and bivariate analysis. Outcomes were compared to a sibling offspring cohort (n = 387) in a 4:1 matched-pair analysis (n = 1681). (i) Survivors were more likely to employ ART than their siblings (4.5% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.501). Successful pregnancies were achieved after a median of one cycle with, most commonly, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) using non-cryopreserved oocytes/sperm. (ii) Multiple-sibling births (p p p < 0.001; OR = 2.499, 95%-CI = 1.401–4.459) occurred significantly more often in survivor offspring following ART utilisation than in spontaneously conceived children. ART did not increase the prevalence of childhood cancer, congenital malformations or heart defects. (iii) These outcomes had similar prevalences in the sibling population. In our explorative study, we could not detect an influence on health outcomes when known confounders, such as multiple births, were taken into account.

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