Fertility treatments and breast cancer risk: A case control-retrospective study

Abstract

Objective: To investigate a possible association between fertility treatments and breast cancer (BC) risk in Greek women. Material-Methods: A series of 391 women who visited two breast clinics in Greece were studied in our case-control retrospective study. The case group comprised 238 women with BC, while the control group had 153 women without BC. All participants were examined clinically and also with breast ultrasound, while those aged over 40 years underwent digital bilateral mammography. All women answered a questionnaire about whether they had received fertility treatment. Results: Using the Chi-square test, there appears to be no significant statistical association between fertility treatments and BC (p=0.178). Conclusion: This study did not find a significant association between fertility treatments and BC risk. Further studies with a larger number of patients are mandatory in order to confirm this result. Women considering fertility treatments such as IVF should be informed that it does not appear to increase BC risk.