Fertility drugs tied to cancer

 Women who pop fertility pills to conceive can raise their future children's risk of developing leukaemia, says a new study. 

Researchers in France found that children were 2.6 times more likely to become ill with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the most common type of childhood leukaemia, if their mothers had been treated with ovarystimulating drugs. They had a 2.3-fold increased risk of suffering the rarer form of the disease, acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Children conceived naturally after their mothers waited over a year to get pregnant had a 50% greater-than-normal likelihood of developing ALL, the Daily Mail reported. 

But, no heightened risk of childhood leukaemia was associated either with in-vitro fertilization or artificial insemination , say researchers. It has always been hypothesized that assisted reproductive technologies may be involved in onset of childhood cancer as they involve repeated treatment at the time of conception of sperm and egg. And it is now established that a majority of leukaemia have pre-natal origin.