Fertility-preservation therapies for cancer patients

Abstract

Background: Recent dramatic advances of cancer therapies have improved overall survival rate of young cancer patients. Therefore, fertility-preservation methods for cancer therapies have been increasingly demanded. Our facility has been conducted fertility-preservation therapies for patients who are under the risk of the spermatogenic dysfunction or permanent loss of ovarian function with cancer therapies. We will introduce our approach and present the future subjects. Methods: We have practiced sperm freezing methods for 24 male cancer patients since 1999. On the other hand, for female cancer patients, we have practiced oocyte and embryo cryopreservation for 4 patients since 2013. Results: Among 24 frozen sperm cases, 2 cases were able to get pregnant by ICSI-ET. In terms of female cancer patients, 2 were married and 2 were unmarried. 2 had breast cancers, 1 had colon cancer and 1 had periosteal sarcoma. All were in the status of pre-chemo therapies. Average numbers of oocyte retrieval were 5.7. Oocyte cryopreservation was practiced for 2 patients and embryo cryopreservation was practiced for 2 patients. Conclusions: For male cancer patients, the methods of freezing sperms before the cancer therapies have been recognized due to the long standing effort of urologists. However, sometimes precise information still has not been presented. We have to keep both cancer patients and oncologists well informed more completely. For female cancer patients, Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology has publicized Opinions of oocyte and ovarian tissue retrieval and cryopreservation for medical reasons. We hope that fertility-preservation therapies for female cancer patients will be better informed in the near future. At the same time, we have to solve the various subjects, such as safety methods of ovarian stimulations, certain techniques of ovarian tissue cryopreservation and autotransplantation, and establishments of psychological support system for the patients.