Women who have undergone heavy cancer treatments have a high risk of developing infertility. Researchers are currently working on simpler ways to restore it.
The management of certain diseases involves the use of treatments that are potentially toxic to the reproductive system . People with solid cancers or hematological malignancies (blood cancers) are particularly affected. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy or even pelvic surgery can indeed alter the functioning of the ovaries , threatening the possibility of having a child at the end of said treatments.
Women have the option of freezing ovarian tissue. Their transplantation after treatment then makes it possible to restore a complete reproductive function. However, the procedure is not without danger. Some doctors are concerned about the risk of re-implanting cancer cells in the body of the concerned.
"If a woman has ovarian cancer or leukemia, you don't want to put those tissues back in place “, explains Kyle Orwig, of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. “The worst thing you can do is give cancer back to a survivor ". This is why for several years the researcher has been working on another approach.
Instead of implanting ovarian tissue, the idea would be to implant only the follicles , those cells that contain and eventually release eggs into the ovaries. According to the researcher, the technique would prevent the implantation of new cancer cells.
At this time, this approach has only been tested in mice. In one study, Kyle Orwig and his team gave four females varying doses of two chemotherapy drugs that cause infertility in humans. They then collected follicles from donor mice that had not undergone chemotherapy and injected them into the ovaries of the first mice. At the end of this study, two of the four mice succeeded to give birth to young.
In theory, the researcher explains that this approach, which therefore seems to work, could be used immediately in humans. Despite everything, she plans to test it second on monkeys.
Eventually, the researchers believe that follicles could also be taken from human donors. The advantage is that unlike people who benefit from organ donations who must take medication to avoid transplant rejection, those who will receive follicles may not need them . The risks would indeed be much more minimal.
The approach could also be used to inject women with their own stored follicles. The procedure would be similar to that already used to collect eggs for IVF . In other words, a needle would be used to access the ovaries through the vagina. However, instead of removing ovarian tissue, you could just remove the follicles.
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