19 Nov Cryopreservation and Transplantation Of Ovarian Tissue In Cancer Patients Helps Preserve Fertility
Dr. Oktay
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kutluk Oktay, MD, PhD.
Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Medicine, and Cell Biology & Anatomy
Director, Division of Reproductive Medicine & Institute for Fertility Preservation
Innovation Institute for Fertility and In Vitro Fertilization
New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Oktay: Cancer treatments cause infertility and early menopause in a growing number of young women around the world and US. One of the strategies to preserve fertility, which was developed by our team, is to cryopreserve ovarian tissue before chemotherapy and later transplant it back to the patient when they are cured of the cancer and ready to have children. However, success of ovarian transplantation has been limited due to limitation in blood flow to grafts. In this study we described a new approach which seems to improve graft function. The utility of an extracellular tissue matrix and robotic surgery seems to enhance graft function. With this approach both patients conceived with frozen embryos to spare and one has already delivered.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Dr. Oktay: Ovarian cryopreservation and transplantation is an effective fertility preservation technique, especially with recent improvements. Over 1/3rd of women have at least one child after having gone ovarian cryopreservation before cancer treatments, and many had several children. In almost all, menopause was reversed.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Dr. Oktay: Future research will focus on combining the extracellular matrix-robot approach with pharmacological agents that can further enhance graft vascularization, in a larger number of patients.
Citation:
First pregnancies, live birth, and in vitro fertilization outcomes after transplantation of frozen-banked ovarian tissue with a human extracellular matrix scaffold using robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery
Kutluk Oktay, MD, PhD, Giuliano Bedoschi, MD, Fernanda Pacheco, MD Volkan Turan, MD Volkan Emirdar, MD
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2015.10.001
AJOG November 17, 2015
[wysija_form id=”5″]
Kutluk Oktay, MD, PhD. (2015). Cryopreservation and Transplantation Of Ovarian Tissue In Cancer Patients Helps Preserve Fertility
Last Updated on November 19, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD