The prevalence of parental cancer history and in vitro fertilization utilization

Advances in cancer treatment have led to an increased number of survivors who may subsequently have children. We aim to describe the prevalence of a parental cancer history with and without the utilization of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in several states in the United States.

This study used data from IVF cycles resulting in live births reported to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinic Outcome Reporting System from 2004 to 2018. These were linked to birth certificates and cancer registries in 3 states (New York, Massachusetts, and North Carolina). For each IVF-conceived delivery, the subsequent 10 deliveries were used as the naturally conceived comparison group. A parent's cancer history was included if the diagnosis preceded the birth of the first child.

There were 814 658 births (82 544 IVF-conceived and 732 114 naturally conceived births) in our analysis. Among births conceived naturally, 0.5% of mothers and 0.4% of fathers had a cancer history compared with 1.2% of mothers and 1.8% of fathers among IVF-conceived births. The prevalence of cancer history increased over the study period (P ≤.004). The most common cancers among mothers were thyroid or endocrine (28.7%) and breast (12.2%) vs male genital (26.3%) and thyroid or endocrine (9.1%) among fathers. There were higher rates of male and female genital malignancies, female breast, and female lymphoid or hematopoietic cancers among parents who conceived with IVF (P < .001).

Overall, 1.1% of all births and 3.0% of IVF-conceived births had at least 1 parent with a cancer history with an increasing prevalence over the study period, highlighting the importance of oncofertility programs.