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HEALTH-CANCER-FERTILITY-FRANCE
Infertile cancer patient has baby using frozen lab-matured egg: study
PARIS, Feb 19, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – In a world first, a woman rendered
infertile by cancer treatment gave birth after one of her immature eggs was
matured, frozen, and then — five years later — thawed and fertilised,
researchers in France reported.
A study in the journal Annals of Oncology published Wednesday describes how
the baby boy was born to a 34-year-old French woman who had been treated with
chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Before the treatment began, doctors removed seven immature eggs from her
ovaries and used a technique called in vitro maturation (IVM) to allow the
eggs to develop further in the laboratory.
Up to now, there have been no successful pregnancies in cancer patients
with eggs that have undergone IVM and freezing.
Some children, however, have been born as a result of IVM immediately
followed by fertilisation and transfer to the patient.
Michael Grynberg, head of the Department of Reproductive Medicine and
Fertility Preservation at Antoine Beclere University Hospital near Paris,
recalled becoming aware of the 29-year-old patient’s case.
“I offered her the option of egg freezing after IVM, and also freezing
ovarian tissue,” he said in a statement.
“She rejected the second option, which was considered too invasive a couple
of days after cancer diagnosis.”
So-called cryopreservation of ovarian tissue is an experimental method in
which the outer layer of an ovary — which contains immature eggs — is taken
out of the body and frozen for future use.
In the case of the French patient, ultrasound revealed that there were 17
small, fluid-filled sacs containing immature eggs in her ovaries.
But using hormones to stimulate the ovaries to ripen the eggs would have
taken too long and might have made her cancer worse, leaving retrieval of the
immature eggs and freezing as the best option.
After five years, the patient recovered from breast cancer, but she was
unable to conceive naturally. The chemo had made her infertile.
Six of the eggs that had been frozen five years earlier survived the
thawing process, and five were successfully fertilised.
One of these fertilised eggs was transferred to the patient’s womb, and she
gave birth to a healthy baby boy — named Jules — on July 6, 2019.
“This success represents a breakthrough in the field of fertility
preservation,” Grynberg said.
BSS/AFP/IJ/1747 hrs