Fertility preservation strategies in women undergoing chemotherapy for haematological malignancy

Abstract

As one of the basic modalities of oncological therapy, chemotherapy usually leads to permanent consequences. Infertility is one of the most common consequences resulting from irreversible gonadal damage. The potentially effective method of reproductive function protection in women undergoing chemotherapy for haematological malignancy is administration of GnRH analogues during chemotherapy by creating pre-pubertal hormonal milieu. The other useful methods are the cryopreservation of oocytes and ovarian tissue from patients undergoing anti-cancer therapy. The presented OvarOnko project sets the primary target to verify the potential protective effect of GnRH analogues to protect ovarian tissue over the course of three different chemotherapy regimens in female patients with childbearing potential who suffer from Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL). Another goal of the project is to work out practical conditions and working procedures for the development of the method of the cryopreservation of oocytes and ovarian tissue. The major outcomes of the project will be the verification of efficacy or the lack of efficacy of GnRH analogues in the ovarian function protection and the elaboration of practical conditions and working procedures allowing inclusion of the methods of cryopreservation of oocytes and ovarian tissue in services provided to our patients before anti-cancer treatment. The costs of the two methods of ovarian function protection will be compared. The differences in ovarian response between the patients with HL and non-oncological patients recorded in the register of therapeutic cycles of assisted reproduction will be identified using data-mining methods.