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Sept. 23, 2004 -- A 32-year-old Belgian cancer survivor is now a mom thanks to a procedure done seven years ago in which a portion of her ovary was frozen and banked prior to chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease.
Researchers say it's the first human live birth after successfully freezing and reimplanting a section of ovarian tissue that was removed prior to chemotherapy.
Infertility is a common side effect of chemotherapy for women. But removal of the whole ovary for freezing and potential reimplantation is often not an option for young women undergoing cancer treatment because there is a chance that ovarian function may recover naturally after chemotherapy.
Researchers say that removing only a section of ovarian tissue and freezing it for later use allows women to keep both options available for restoring fertility after cancer treatment.
"Our findings open new perspectives for young cancer patients facing premature ovarian failure," write researcher Jacques Donnez of Catholic University of Louvainin in Brussels, Belgium, and colleagues. "Our findings suggest that cryopreservation of ovarian tissue should be offered to all young women diagnosed with cancer."
Earlier this year, American researchers used a similar procedure in a 30-year-old woman who became infertile after chemotherapy for breast cancer. But that case involved fertilization outside the womb and reimplantation of a very early embryo that did not result in live birth.
Ovarian Tissue Implant Produces Baby
In the report, released today by The Lancet, Belgian researchers describe the procedure used to produce the live birth.
In 1997, researchers removed five ovarian tissue samples from the then 25-year-old woman's left ovary using minimally invasive surgery before she began chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease, a type of lymphoma. The chemotherapy resulted in ovarian failure shortly after its initiation, and she was started on hormone therapy.
The ovarian samples were then frozen and preserved.
The woman never regained ovarian function and later wanted to become pregnant. Hormone therapy was stopped, and in 2003 the ovarian tissue was thawed and reimplanted into her.
Five months after reimplantation, the woman began having regular menstrual cycles, and hormone levels indicated functional ovarian tissue. An ultrasound of transplanted ovarian tissue showed that a follicle, which is necessary for eggs to develop, had formed at the site where the banked ovarian tissue had been implanted.
Eleven months after reimplantation, the women became pregnant by natural fertilization and gave birth to a healthy, 8 pound 3 ounce baby girl on Sept. 23, 2004.
SOURCES: Donnez, J. The Lancet, Sept. 24, 2004, advance online publication. News release, The Lancet.