International study of cancer risks of medically assisted reproduction
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cancer risk after medically assisted reproduction – An international study-level meta-analysis
IRAS ID
282008
Contact name
Alastair Sutcliffe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
RA059685/1, UCL risk assessment reference number; Z6364106/2022/03/95 , UCL data protection policy reference number
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, months, days
Research summary
This UCL research project is the UK branch of the international CREATE study of the risk of cancer in women who undergo treatment with Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and the risk of cancer in children conceived using ART. Because cancer is a rare illness and any elevation in the risk of cancer due to ART is small, this research requires larger samples than are possible in single country studies. The CREATE study is an international collaboration using data from Australia, the UK and the CoNARTaS combined cohort from the Nordic countries. The projected international sample size is 1,112,000 women treated with ART and 500,000 children conceived using ART.
Since January 1991, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has mandatorily collected data on all ART treatments carried out in the UK. This project will link HFEA data on 266,787 women treated with ART between 1991 and 2010 and 75,348 children conceived using ART between 1992 and 2009 to health records held by NHS-Digital. The risks of all cancers (and ovarian, endometrial and breast cancers) in women treated with ART will be compared with a control group of women not exposed to ART. The risks of all cancers (and haematological cancers, central nervous system cancers and retinoblastoma) in ART conceived children will be compared to (a) the cancer risk in a cohort of naturally conceived siblings of ART conceived children, and (b) the cancer risk in a cohort of unrelated naturally conceived children.
Results from the UK branch will be combined with results from the other branches of the CREATE study using a distributed meta-analysis approach in which model parameters are exported and combined to produce an overall study result, but no data on subjects in the individual branches are exported outside the home country.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0828
Date of REC Opinion
14 Nov 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion