Cancer patients who have ovarian tissue removed and stored for later transplantation have a chance at a successful pregnancy, a new study finds.
Powerful chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer can impair a woman’s fertility. This new study shows that ovarian tissue transplants are safe and effective and pose little risk of the cancer coming back, the Danish researchers said.
“This procedure is gaining ground worldwide as an optional fertility treatment for fertile female cancer patients who after cancer treatment most likely will be infertile,” said lead researcher Dr. Annette Jensen, from the Laboratory of Reproductive Biology at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen.
With this procedure, many women who survive cancer should be able to become pregnant and have healthy children, Jensen said.
Of 32 women who had ovarian tissue frozen and transplanted in this study, 10 women — or 31 per cent — had a child, she said.
Many young cancer patients today can expect to live a normal lifespan. Their focus shifts from survival to quality-of-life, explained senior researcher Dr. Claus Yding Andersen, a professor of human reproductive physiology at the University of Copenhagen.
“Here, fertility is very important to many young women,” he said.
“The tissue restores ovarian organ function, and women regain menstrual cycles and sex hormone levels that will avoid menopause,” Andersen added.
Dr. Avner Hershlag, chief of the Center for Human Reproduction at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., called the new research “innovative and exciting.”
Simultaneous advances in cancer treatment and reproductive medicine have made these scientific leaps possible, he said.
New York Times News Service
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