According to a study published in the July issue of The Medical Journal Pediatrics, when the risk of getting cancer in early childhood was evaluated, the results found that those babies who were conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF) had a higher chance of cancer risk. However researchers say that the reason likely has nothing to do with how they were conceived and the difference in risk is very small compared to the babies who were conceived the normal way.

Dr. Bengt Kallen, the study's lead author and a researcher at the University of Lund, says: "It's rather reassuring. The risk' is so small that it can't matter much for the individual parents or parents-to-be."

The study has only evaluated the difference of the babies conceived through IVF to the babies conceived traditionally. Therefore, the answer does not clearly identified whether the underlining condition that caused the mother to receive the IVF has affected the babies to have higher risk of having cancer.

Researchers mention that just because these test results have been confirmed, the increased risk of cancer should not discourage parents from using this method of conception. This method is inevitable for many couples to conceive the baby at all in the first place.

Each year in the U.S., more than 57,000 babies are born after IVF, making up about 1 percent of all births.