Oncofertility Care in Young Women and the Outcomes of Pregnancy Over the Last 5 Years

Abstract

Aim: To ascertain the actual outcomes of oncofertility care in young women to provide more appropriate care. Materials & methods: We analyzed the data of 67 female patients under 43 years of age who underwent oncofertility care between January 2015 and September 2019. Results: There were 28 patients with breast cancer, 19 patients with hematologic cancer and 20 patients with other cancer diagnoses. Breast cancer patients tended to take longer than hematologic cancer patients to initiate oncofertility treatment. Despite undergoing oncofertility care, seven of nine pregnant patients did not choose assisted reproductive technology (ART). Conclusion: As spontaneous pregnancies were more common than ART pregnancies in our study, pregnancy by not only ART but also non-ART method is a viable option for young cancer survivors.

Lay abstract

We conducted a study about oncofertility care and pregnancy outcomes in female cancer survivors under 43 years old. Even after chemotherapy, pregnancy by not only assisted reproductive technology (ART) but also non-ART method is a viable option for young cancer survivors. Social support as well as ART advancement is important for young cancer survivors and the low marriage rate may contribute to the low pregnancy rate.

Keywords:

• cancer survivors
• cryopreservation of oocytes
• cryopreservation of ovarian tissues
• GnRH agonist
• oncofertility care

Author contributions

A Horie contributed to the acquisition and interpretation of the data as well as played a role in creating manuscript. M Mandai was the supervisor of all work. All other authors interpreted data and critically reviewed the manuscript for important intellectual content.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to S Sakai, M Imano and N Matsuda for their assistance such as ART and data collection.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

This study was approved by the ethics review board of Kyoto University Hospital (approval no. R1594). The authors state that they have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.