In April, the Oncofertility Consortium hosted a Virtual Grand Rounds with Clarisa Gracia, MD, MSCE, entitled, “Case Studies in Oncofertility,” in which she discussed five theoretical young cancer patients and how oncofertility could be incorporated into their medical care. These patients included pediatric girls, adolescents, and young adult women with a variety of diseases including lymphoma, leukemia, ovarian, breast, and bone cancer. Dr. Gracia’s talk not only included the clinical recommendations for each of these patients, but also the scientific evidence that supported such suggestions. If you didn’t watch the live Rounds you can view a recording of the talk, with an option to obtain CMEs from the recording. Following are some of the questions and answers posed to Dr. Gracia that she was able to answer after the Rounds ended.
Question: Are there differences in the impact of chemotherapeutics on primordial vs. growing follicles?
Answer: There is destruction of both growing follicles and primordial follicles. The article, “How do chemotherapeutic agents damage the ovary?” by Morgan, Anderson, Gourley, Wallace, and Spears provides a good review of some of the evidence. Briefly, chemotherapeutics may affect a variety of cell types within the ovary. A reduction in primordial follicles may be caused by direct damage by chemotherapeutics. However, chemotherapy also damages growing follicles, which increases recruitment of the primordial pool of follicles to begin growing. This increased recruitment also means that chemotherapy may indirectly decrease primordial follicle numbers.
Question: How do you build relationships with oncologist to ensure they are willing to start the fertility preservation discussion with patients?
Answer: It is important to reach out to oncologists and oncology nurses and let them know that you provide fertility preservation services for their patients. Provide flyers, letters, and make an effort to give presentations to oncology groups in your area. Please refer to the oncofertility website for more information.
Question: Are there functional analyses after uterine or whole body irradiation to determine if the uterus will be able to carry a healthy growing fetus to term?
Answer: The studies have focused only on uterine size and blood flow post radiation exposure, not functional in vitro studies.
Question: What do you/your patients consider a good number of oocytes? If a patient doesn’t get enough after one stimulation protocol, will you allow them to delay treatment in order to do another?
Answer: That is a difficult question and depends on a patient’s age and egg quality. We generally think getting more eggs is better than few eggs, but there is no guarantee of pregnancy even with many eggs. Ideally, a patient gets at least 10 oocytes in an egg retrieval. It is reasonable to pursue another stimulation cycle only if the oncologist feels comfortable delaying therapy.
Join the next Oncofertility Virtual Grand Rounds in June on the topics, “Sexuality After Cancer” with Dr. Kamaljeet Murthy and “Hormonal impact of cancer treatment and management of hormonal symptoms in female cancer survivors” with Dr. Catherine Stika.