Chemotherapy can save the lives of many individuals with cancer. Unfortunately, it usually causes infertility after treatment, posing a concern for these people who will face a lifetime condition that considerably limits the quality of their lives. Advances in the field of oncofertility have brought hope to cancer survivors who long to plan a family; however, standard approaches only rely on cryopreservation of sperms and eggs before treatment and do not prevent infertility. In 'Bedside to Bench', Min Xu, Mary Ellen Pavone and Teresa Woodruff examine a study where individuals treated with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists before cancer therapy showed a decreased risk of infertility. How these agonists work to suppress and protect ovarian function and increase fertility in women after treatment is still unclear and begs further investigation at the bench. In 'Bench to Bedside', Amander Clark, Bart Phillips and Kyle Orwig discuss potential experimental options to preserve and restore male fertility after chemotherapy. These approaches will shed light into mechanisms of male fertility and spermatogenesis and may be the alternative to sperm freezing, which is not suitable for prepubertal boys and men unable to make sperm.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
US National Cancer Institute. <http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html> (2011, accessed 8 November 2011).
Partridge, A.H. et al. J. Clin. Oncol. 22, 4174–4183 (2004).
Jeruss, J.S. & Woodruff, T.K. N. Engl. J. Med. 360, 902–911 (2009).
Del Mastro, L. et al. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 306, 269–276 (2011).
Badawy, A., Elnashar, A., El-Ashry, M. & Shahat, M. Fertil. Steril. 91, 694–697 (2009).
Sverrisdottir, A., Nystedt, M., Johansson, H. & Fornander, T. Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 117, 561–567 (2009).
Gerber, B. et al. J. Clin. Oncol. 29, 2334–2341 (2011).
Del Mastro, L., Giraudi, S., Levaggi, A. & Pronzato, P. Expert Opin. Pharmacother. 12, 387–396 (2011).
Kumar, T.R., Wang, Y., Lu, N. & Matzuk, M.M. Nat. Genet. 15, 201–204 (1997).
Dierich, A. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 13612–13617 (1998).
Hansen, K.R. et al. Hum. Reprod. 23, 699–708 (2008).
Bauer-Dantoin, A.C. & Jameson, J.L. Endocrinology 136, 4432–4438 (1995).
Kang, S.K., Choi, K.C., Yang, H.S. & Leung, P.C. Endocr. Relat. Cancer 10, 169–177 (2003).
Meirow, D., Assad, G., Dor, J. & Rabinovici, J. Hum. Reprod. 19, 1294–1299 (2004).
Danforth, D.R., Arbogast, L.K. & Friedman, C.I. Fertil. Steril. 83, 1333–1338 (2005).
Maiani, E., Diederich, M. & Gonfloni, S. Pharmacol. 82, 1269–1276 (2011).
Broer, S.L. et al. Hum. Reprod. Update 17, 46–54 (2011).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xu, M., Pavone, M. & Woodruff, T. Fruitful progress to fertility: Preserving oocytes from chemodestruction. Nat Med 17, 1562–1563 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2595
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2595
- Springer Nature America, Inc.
This article is cited by
-
Fertilitätsprotektion bei onkologischen und nichtonkologischen Erkrankungen
Gynäkologische Endokrinologie (2020)
-
Gonadotropin-Releasing-Hormon-Agonisten – wo stehen wir?
Gynäkologische Endokrinologie (2019)
-
Practical recommendations for fertility preservation in women by the FertiPROTEKT network. Part II: fertility preservation techniques
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics (2018)
-
Fertilitätsprotektion bei Frauen
Gynäkologische Endokrinologie (2012)