Transplanting ovarian tissue helps a few women have babies

Danish researchers found that cancer patients who had their ovarian tissues removed and used for transplant after the treatments may have a higher chance of successful pregnancy.

Nonetheless, longer follow up of the women who were examined will give more data about the probabilities of cancer relapse. This kicks the remaining ovary back into gear, restarting the process of ovulation in about four to five months. “This technique still needs to be further validated, but the results are reassuring”, Dr. Yacoub Khalaf, director of the Assisted Conception Unit at Guy’s Hospital in London, who is also working to refine the procedure, said in a press release. There have been concerns cancerous cells in the transplanted ovary could spread to the rest of the body. “It should prompt people in the United Kingdom to provide the service more frequently”. As yet, it is uncertain whether it would be funded by the NHS, so undergoing this procedure could prove expensive.

The study, which is published today (Wednesday) in Human Reproduction, one of the world’s leading reproductive medicine journals, shows that, in a few patients, transplanted ovarian tissue can last at least ten years.

The study was widely reported on by the United Kingdom media, accurately for the most part.

‘As … techniques for removing, freezing, storing and then transplanting ovarian tissue have developed, fertility preservation is increasingly becoming an integral part of treatment. This technique was deemed absolutely safe and gave one third success rate in the women who underwent this experiment.

The procedure is intended for women with cancer who wish to preserve their fertility, since cancer treatments can harm the ovaries.

In the latest analysis, experts reviewed 41 Danish women who had a total of 53 transplants of thawed ovarian tissue, and who were followed for a decade.

The researchers focused on the women who had transplants to help them get pregnant.

Women with leukemia have not been given transplants because of the increased risk of spread or recurrence. The research paper does not say how this was measured.

The team will continue to monitor the women. Fourteen children were born in total.

Ten women became pregnant but miscarried or terminated their pregnancies. Eight were conceived naturally, and 6 after IVF treatment.

“I think patients would definitely want (the option of transplanted ovarian tissue) and there is a lot of future potential, but this isn’t ready to be rolled out tomorrow”, she said, as stated in the Huffington Post.

The proportion of women with cancer recurrence (7%) was the same among the women who’d had transplants as the estimated proportion among women who didn’t have transplants. Since then, almost 800 women have had tissue frozen. Two of them had breast cancer at the site of their original tumours, while a Ewing’s sarcoma patient suffered a relapse.

Researcher Dr Annette Jensen, of the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, said: “These findings show grafted tissue is effective in restoring ovarian function in a safe manner”. All but two of the women had an entire ovary cryopreserved.

And we don’t know how ovarian transplant compares with other types of fertility treatment, such as extracting and freezing eggs before cancer treatment. Ovarian function, fertility and the safety of the procedure were assessed.