with women cancer diagnosis Breast cancers undergoing fertility preservation procedures do not have an increased risk of disease recurrence or specific mortality, a study by the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) showed that participants followed for an average of five years.
The results, published in the journal JAMA Oncology, may provide future security and new hope for women who want to preserve their fertility later on. Cancer treatment with chemotherapy.
As the researchers point out, about one in ten women affected by breast cancer are of childbearing age and are at risk of becoming infertile. Chemotherapy treatment. In the hope of having children after completing cancer treatment, many women choose to undergo fertility preservation procedures, with or without hormonal stimulation. These methods include cryopreservation, freezing of embryos, female gametes (oocytes), and ovarian tissue.
“It is not unusual for women with hormone-positive breast cancer or the physicians treating them to choose not to undergo fertility preservation procedures, as these procedures increase the risk of cancer recurrence or death,” says the study’s first author. Anna Marklund, Researcher in the Department of Oncology-Pathology at Karolinska Institutet,
no need to wait
In fact, in some cases, women are even advised to wait 5-10 years before trying to conceive, and fertility declines in all women with increasing age. ,Therefore, there is a need to better understand the safety of fertility preservation procedures at the time of breast cancer diagnosis.», defends the researcher.
The registry study included 1,275 women of childbearing age who were treated for Breast cancer in Sweden between 1994–2017. Of these, 425 completed fertility preservation procedures with or without hormonal stimulation. The control group of 850 women were treated for breast cancer but did not undergo fertility preservation procedures.
Women undergoing fertility preservation procedures and women in the control group were matched by age at the time diagnosis, calendar periods on diagnosis, and the healthcare sector. Statistical data was taken from national health registries and population registries with data relating to outcomes, variables disease and treatment and socioeconomic characteristics.
statistics
The proportion of women without rest at five years was 89% those that undergo hormonal stimulation of the ovaries, 83% of those who underwent ovarian tissue freezing and 82% of those who did not undergo fertility preservation procedures.
Five years after breast cancer treatment, the survival rate was 96% in the group that underwent hormonal stimulation to freeze the egg or embryo, 93% of the group who underwent fertility preservation proceduresd who did not undergo hormonal stimulation, and 90% in the group that did not undergo fertility preservation procedures.
“When fertility preservation procedures were performed, we observed no increased risk of relapse or mortality compared to women who had undergone fertility preservation procedures,” says the study’s final author. Kenny Rodriguez-Walberg.
“This is valuable information that can help transform women’s care routines. Young people with breast cancer who want to preserve their fertility », Comment. Thus, the researchers plan to follow up on the results for the next five years.
