Category: News

The News Center of the Feinberg School of Medicine released their 2013 Year in Review highlighting the growth and success of the previous year.  A new gentler chemotherapy drug in the form of nanoparticles has been designed by Northwestern Medicine® scientists, including our very own Dr.…

Last week, the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern and the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health Sciences University were designated the first-ever Centers of Excellence in Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology care. According to the Health Care Rights Initiative, which launched the…

Reproductive scientists across the globe have been discussing the news that a group from Japan has just reported the first human birth from previously vitrified ovarian tissue.  The article, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), describes the research by Kawamuraa,…

A new article in the New York Times discusses some new research and clinical advances in oncofertility. The piece, After Cancer, Fertility Is Often Within Reach, discusses some of the new findings in reproductive health survivorship after cancer that were recently announced in the Lancet Oncology. It also…

Today the Endocrine Society announced that Barbara Byrd Keenan will join the team as the new Chief Executive Officer. In a recent press release, the society’s president, Teresa Woodruff, PhD, made the announcement and noted that, “Ms. Keenan will be instrumental in helping the Society…

Daiane Bulgarelli, currently PhD student in the Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brasil, recently received the first prize award from the for her oral presentation at the 27th annual congress of the Sociedade Brasileiro de Reprodução…

Oncofertility awareness increased this week when the Washington Post published an article on the critical subject. The piece, Oncofertility offers new options for young women with cancer who want to have kids, introduces the concept of oncofertility for cancer patients and discusses the need for…

Laxmi Kondapalli, MD, an Assistant Professor, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Colorado, was recently interviewed on How On Earth, a half-hour National Public Radio audio magazine featuring short stories about the recent news in science, plus live interviews and special features. In the…

Congratulations to the Women Survivors Alliance on their first ever National Women’s Survivors Convention – September 22-24, 2013. There are more than 7 million women cancer survivors in the United States who traveled the journey from healthy lives through cancer diagnoses and treatment. But their…

Members of the NIH organized and co-chaired a symposium on Cancer and Pregnancy: Considerations Regarding the Use of Chemotherapy in Arizona this past June at the 53rd annual meeting of the Teratology Society. ONcofertility Consortium member, Laxmi Kondapalli, MD, MSCE, was invited to speak on the panel as an oncofertility…

To help doctors give their patients the best possible care, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) asks its medical experts to develop recommendations for specific areas of cancer care. In 2006, ASCO developed recommendations for fertility preservation for people with cancer. These recommendations were…

Through oncofertility specialists, patients are now being counseled about options available to help maintain fertility prior to cancer treatment. Today, oncologists at the University of Colorado Cancer Center are referring patients of childbearing age to its new Oncofertility Program led by Laxmi Kondapalli, MD, MSCE.…

In 2011, Oncofertility Consortium member, Laxmi Kondapalli, MD, MSCE, started Colorado’s first fertility preservation program for cancer patients at CU School of Medicine. Recently, Dr. Kondapalli was featured in CU’s philanthropy magazine, Creating Futures, at a fundraising event she hosted entitled, Cocktails for a Cure at…

The Oncofertility Consortium is proud to announce that we have reached over 1,000 followers on Twitter! If you have not already, please follow our posts on the popular social media site, www.twitter.com/oncofertility. Not only do we post about cancer and fertility related basic science and…

A new gentler chemotherapy drug in the form of nanoparticles has been designed by Northwestern Medicine® scientists to be less toxic to a young woman’s fertility but tough on cancer. This is the first cancer drug tested while in development for its effect on fertility…

The Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology recently published a report by Oncofertility Consortium members, Kate E. Waimey, PhD, Francesca E. Duncan, PhD, H. Irene Su, MD, Kristin Smith, Harlan Wallach, MFA, Kemi Jona, PhD, Christos Coutifaris, MD, PhD, Clarisa R. Gracia, MD, MSCE, Lonnie D. Shea, PhD, Robert E. Brannigan, MD, R. Jeffrey Chang,…

Oncofertility Consortium members, Ting AY, Yeoman RR, Campos JR, Lawson MS, Mullen SF, Fahy GM, Zelinski MB, published a paper in Human Reproduction entitled, Morphological and functional preservation of pre-antral follicles after vitrification of macaque ovarian tissue in a closed system. Researchers asked the question: what are the appropriate conditions to…

The National Institutes of Health will be forced to reduce its spending by 5.1 percent, or about $1.6 billion this year, beginning today (3.1.2013) if President Barack Obama and Congress don’t strike a deal. Research labs in universities across America are preparing for the cuts, which they…

Oncofertility Consortium member, Laxmi Kondapalli, MD, MSCE, was recently featured in an article about her impressive work in Oncofertility at the University of Colorado Cancer Center in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Kondapalli did her Oncofertility training at both Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania, and…

Dr. Woodruff sits down with the Chicago Tribune to discuss oncofertility, the term she coined in 2006 to describe the emerging subfield that bridges oncology and reproductive research to explore and expand options for the reproductive future of cancer survivors. Also featured in the article…

In a new publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Oncofertility Consortium members Clarisa Gracia, MD, and Jacqueline Jeruss, MD, discuss the importance of fertility preservation communication among oncology providers and newly diagnosed young female cancer patients so that an informed choice about whether or…

A new website has just been launched to provide assistance to young patients wishing to learn about their reproductive options in the midst of a cancer diagnosis. Now patients and their clinicians can go to the new Patient Navigator for Fertility Preservation website, which includes…

A new article in Aging Cell describes reduced chromosome cohesion with advanced maternal age. The authors Duncan, Hornick, Lampson, Schultz, Shea, and Woodruff identify that eggs from older women which were obtained following in vitro maturation resulted in an increased inter-kinetochore distance between sister chromatids.…