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It's totally safe to do with regular birth control pills as long as they're monophasic - that is, constant dose. That way you're just getting the same dosage of hormones all the time. If you have a triphasic pill (where the pills change dosage and probably colors each week) you'll be cycling strangely and it'll throw you way outta whack. You can still skip your period with those pills, but it's not recommended except occasionally and it's less effective over several months - more prone to breakthrough bleeding and stuff. Seasonale has a formulation similar to or identical to some monophasic pills that are already on the market - it's just prescribed in 90-day packs instead of 28 day packs, and it's the first brand to be officially approved by the FDA for use in stopping periods - doctors have been doing the same thing "off-label" with other pills for years.
And actually, stopping your period completely decreases the risk of ovarian cancer, so I'm not sure why your doctor would be concerned - basically, if you're not releasing eggs, there's no breakage of the sac around the egg in the ovary, and therefore no regeneration of cells to repair the break, and that regeneration is where much ovarian cancer starts as abnormally regenerated cells. They think that's why many developing countries where women are pregnant most of their lives have lower rates of ovarian cancer- they ovulate less. It's actually "unnatural" for women to have a period every month, evolutionarily speaking. Before the pill, women would likely be pregnant a lot more frequently than we are today, and would therefore have many fewer periods over the course of their lives.
Now, uterine cancer and cervical I'm not so sure about the link, but decreasing the risk of ovarian cancer is one reason to go on the pill and stop your periods.
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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