OSLO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Hanne Stensheim, a researcher with the Cancer Registry in Norway, has found that the risk of having children with birth defects does not increase in mothers who have had cancer.
"It is reassuring that the risk of birth defects is the same as in the general population," said Stensheim who conducted the study, according to a press statement published on Monday in the official website for the Cancer Registry.
The findings are based on data on 3,915 women who have children after they have had been treated for cancer and their children. They are compared with 144,653 men and women who have not had cancer but who have had children in the same period from 1967 to 2006.
Stensheim discovered that women who have their first child after cancer has the lowest risk compared with the control group, while those who get their second child after cancer has a doubled risk of the baby having a lower birth weight than expected.
"A few previous studies have shown no increased incidence of birth defects in children of fathers with a history of cancer, but this was not confirmed in our study," said Stensheim.