A Cohort Study of Breast Cancer Risk after 20 Years of Follow-Up of Women Treated with Fertility Drugs

Abstract

Background: Using a nationwide cohort of Danish women, we investigated the association between use of fertility drugs and risk of breast cancer.

Methods: The study cohort included women ages 20 to 44 years and living in Denmark between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2011. Information on fertility status, use of fertility drugs, breast cancer, covariates, and vital status was obtained from the Danish Infertility Cohort and various Danish national registers. Cox proportional hazard regression models were applied to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusted for potential confounders.

Results: Of the 1,330,852 women included, 96,782 (7.3%) were infertile, and 20,567 (1.5%) were diagnosed with breast cancer during a median follow-up of 20.9 years. Compared with fertile women, infertile women who had used any fertility drugs did not have an increased hazard for breast cancer overall (HR = 1.02; 95% CI, 0.95-1.10), or for any of the histologic types (ductal, lobular, or mucinous) of breast cancer. Furthermore, no associations were observed between use of specific types of fertility drugs and breast cancer.

Conclusions: No convincing associations between use of fertility drugs and breast cancer were observed after two decades of follow-up.

Impact: Our results do not support a marked association between fertility drugs and breast cancer and are therefore reassuring for infertile women treated with fertility drugs.