Risk of Ovarian Cancer After Treatment for Infertility

Abstract

Background: Ovarian cancer is the most frequent cause of death from gynecologic malignancies in the world. Ovarian cancer is predominantly a disease of postmenopausal period, with a median age at diagnosis of 59 years. In recent years, there have been many debates about the relationship between fertility medication and cancer. Due to the lack of comprehensive study of this matter, and as understanding the relationship between the use of fertility drugs and cancer is of importance, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between infertility drugs and cancer in women. Objective: To determine the risk of ovarian cancer after treatment of infertility.  Study Selection: Multiple articles were reviewed. Prospective studies and case reports were excluded from the data. Retrospective studies were included in the study. Methods and Materials: A review of the scientific literature concerning the association between the use of fertility treatments and the risk of ovarian cancer was done. In this study, digital databases including PubMed, EMBASE and Google scholar were searched. The survey was carried out using keywords such as “infertility”, “ ovarian cancer risk”, “gynecological cancer”, “gynecological cancer risk”, “cancer risk”, “in vitro fertilization”, “progesterone”, “fertility drugs”, “infertility treatment”, variously associated together. Results: Using the search criteria, 25 researches were examined based on the title and abstract. All the 25 studies were considered in their full versions. Of these works, including literature reviews or meta-analysis reports, it was concluded that infertility treatment has a positive relationship with ovarian cancer. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that fertility drug usage significantly contribute to overall risk of ovarian cancer when adjusting for known confounding factors. In the next years, the incidence of female infertility is expected to increase. A lot of new drugs are under investigation while other recent drugs are already in current use. More study can be done so that the mortality and mobility could be reduced in the society.

Keywords: infertility, fertility drugs, ovarian cancer, infertility treatment

DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/82-09

Publication date: November 30^th 2020