Pregnancy Possible After Cancer Treatment

Healthy ovarian tissue has been taken from a non-pregnant woman with cancer and then re-implanted after cancer therapy, a German report said.

Ralf Dittrich and his colleagues from Erlangen University Hospital in Germany said the patient, now 32-years-old, could become pregnant now that she has had the procedure.

The woman was diagnosed with anal carcinoma in 2004 and chemotherapy followed by radiation was recommended. Ovaries near this type of tumor are often damaged by this type of cancer therapy and as a result many women become infertile.

The physicians succeeded in removing healthy ovarian tissue from the woman before treatment and had it frozen. The patient was then treated for cancer and she has tolerated the therapy well and has not suffered any cancer relapse, Dittrich said.

However, despite hormone treatments, her menstrual periods had stopped for two years. For this reason, the patient’s conserved ovarian tissue was inserted endoscopically into her pelvis.

She subsequently reported her first menstruation and it may be possible for her to become pregnant, although this has not yet occurred, the researchers said.

The findings are published in the journal Deutsches Arzteblatt International.