It's worth noting that the Reuters piece (middle) clarified this in the first paragraph, but even so it's not a fab headline there
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The researchers found a ~very slight~ relative risk increase of 17% for childhood cancer in the group of kids who were born through IVFpic.twitter.com/pf2gvPUPG5
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The authors guessed that this might be due to an increased risk of liver cancer, because that was the only single cancer that was more common in IVF kidspic.twitter.com/PnUab9an2G
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Also worth noting that the RELATIVE risk increase was 17%, but the ABSOLUTE risk increase was 0.006%, which is TINY This is not at all surprising, childhood cancers are pretty rare
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The study also didn't say that this was due to IVF, noting that it was very likely that these results are due to the issues that caused the underlying infertility issues in the first placepic.twitter.com/k6vtzsTYEt
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What this means is that IVF parents should probably be REASSURED because their kids probably aren't going to be any sicker than kids conceived through good old banging Or, as the lead author of the study said:pic.twitter.com/yqvVihbByV
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So, there are two ways of presenting this data: 1. No increased risk of MOST CANCERS for IVF parents, maybe a small increased risk from one type of cancer, be reassured 2. IVF BABIES GET MORE CANCER BE AFRAID Guess which one many news sites went for?
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Anyway, this is another situation where I have to tip a hat to
@miadegraaf at the Mail, one of the better articles on this studyhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6873753/Kids-born-IVF-slightly-higher-cancer-risk-linked-parents-fertility-issues-study-claims.html …Show this thread -
TL:DR don't be too worried about cancer in your IVF babies, looks like the results are reassuring for parents, maybe check in with your pediatrician if you're worried about liver cancer specifically
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