The testicular tissues of 189 young men show that fertility can survive chemotherapy with the right techniques. Dr. Hanna Valli-Pulaski's team analyzed the tissues taken for biopsies. Inside them there are sperm progenitor cells, which can be used to obtain gametes to be used for IVF.

Some children with cancer are too young to produce sperm to keep. Even the older ones, can have problems in this sense during the therapies, because of the stress. Until a few years ago, this would have denied them any chance of having children in adulthood. Indeed, chemotherapy tends to reduce or cancel subjects' fertility. Lastly, alternatives are emerging. The preservation of testicular tissue is one of these.

The tissues taken with biopsies contain stem cells, which could generate new spermatozoa. The study in question shows that these undifferentiated stem cells could also be obtained from those in the early stages of treatment. This therefore leaves a greater amount of time to act, in order to determine how to separate healthy and tumor cells present in the samples.

The study also includes meetings between doctors and patients' families focused only on future fertility. The goal is to analyze the benefits of post-cancer life and also promote alternatives that are currently little known. To date, only 39% of patients use a fertility preservation tool.

Source: eurekalert.org