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HemOnc Today: “Discussing Oncofertility: The Oncologist’s Responsibility”

From the article, which can be found here:

“A third, but still experimental cryopreservation technique for women, is ovarian tissue freezing. This technique involves a biopsy of the ovarian tissue that is then frozen and implanted into the patient at a later time. According to Duffy, the hope is that the patient will regain ovarian function. Although live births have occurred using this technique, it is still under investigation. One important concern surrounding this technique, however, is the risk for reintroducing the cancer from the biopsied tissue back into the patient after treatment.

The future of ovarian tissue freezing, according to Teresa Woodruff, PhD, Watkins Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, director of the Oncofertility Consortium at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, involves taking the follicles from the tissue and growing them completely in vitro to produce a mature egg that can be fertilized and then transferred back to the patient.

“In that case, the theoretical advantage would be that you could have an embryo and no residual cancer cells, but of course it is still very experimental,” she told HemOnc Today. Woodruff and colleagues are currently working on this technique.”

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