TY - JOUR
T1 - Fifteen year regional center experience in sperm banking for cancer patients: Use and reproductive outcomes in survivors
AU - Stigliani, Sara
AU - Massarotti, Claudia
AU - De Leo, Caterina
AU - Maccarini, Elena
AU - Sozzi, Fausta
AU - Cagnacci, Angelo
AU - Anserini, Paola
AU - Scaruffi, Paola
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Camilla Rizzo, a technician at Physiopathology of Human Reproduction of IRCCS (Istituto di Ricerca e Cura a Carattere Scientifico) Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genova.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/1/1
Y1 - 2021/1/1
N2 - Cancer treatments frequently impair the reproductive ability of patients by damaging spermatogenesis. International guidelines recommend semen cryopreservation to preserve the fertility of oncological adult males and pubertal boys. However, due to the low usage rate of banked samples, not a lot of data on assisted reproductive treatments (ART) success rates in this population and follow-up data for children born are available in the literature. The aims of this study were to report our 15 years of experience, the clinical outcomes of ART as well as neonatal characteristics of babies born. We retrospectively reviewed 682 oncological patients who were referred to our center from 2004 to 2019 for fertility preservation. Over the years, only 26 patients (4%) returned to use their sperm by ART. They were survivors of leukemia and lymphomas (52%), testicular cancer (20%), and other malignant diseases (28%). These couples performed 45 cycles: 34 intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) plus 11 frozen embryo transfers. A total of 13 children were born, with 35% of the cumulative live-birth delivery rate per couple. No stillbirths or malformations were recorded. These successful findings demonstrated that pregnancy could be safely achieved using frozen-thawed sperm of cancer survivors who cryopreserved before gonadotoxic therapies.
AB - Cancer treatments frequently impair the reproductive ability of patients by damaging spermatogenesis. International guidelines recommend semen cryopreservation to preserve the fertility of oncological adult males and pubertal boys. However, due to the low usage rate of banked samples, not a lot of data on assisted reproductive treatments (ART) success rates in this population and follow-up data for children born are available in the literature. The aims of this study were to report our 15 years of experience, the clinical outcomes of ART as well as neonatal characteristics of babies born. We retrospectively reviewed 682 oncological patients who were referred to our center from 2004 to 2019 for fertility preservation. Over the years, only 26 patients (4%) returned to use their sperm by ART. They were survivors of leukemia and lymphomas (52%), testicular cancer (20%), and other malignant diseases (28%). These couples performed 45 cycles: 34 intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) plus 11 frozen embryo transfers. A total of 13 children were born, with 35% of the cumulative live-birth delivery rate per couple. No stillbirths or malformations were recorded. These successful findings demonstrated that pregnancy could be safely achieved using frozen-thawed sperm of cancer survivors who cryopreserved before gonadotoxic therapies.
KW - Assisted reproduction treatment (ART)
KW - Cancer
KW - Fertility preservation
KW - ICSI
KW - Pregnancy after cancer
KW - Pregnancy outcome
KW - Sperm cryopreservation
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U2 - 10.3390/CANCERS13010116
DO - 10.3390/CANCERS13010116
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100100764
VL - 13
SP - 116
JO - Cancers
JF - Cancers
SN - 2072-6694
IS - 1
ER -