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Dear colleague

A 21-years-old G0 woman recently diagnosed of acute myeloid leukemia is in this moment under induction chemotherapy previous to hematopoietic stem cell transplant and her oncologist suggests the possibility of cryopreservation of oocytes.   Is it a safe procedure? What is the risk of oocytes DNA damage? What would be the best COS considering the short time available?

Placido llaneza

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Answer by Prof. Dror Meirow

Oocyte collection for IVF or egg freezing in a patient treated with chemotherapy.
Making IVF between chemotherapy cycles or even remote up to 6 months from recent chemotherapy is not effective and is unsafe.
Growing follicles (those that are recruited for IVF) are very vulnerable to chemotherapy and are easily destroyed. Hence egg collection often results in NO EGGS although the patient is not sterilized.
Moreover, animal studies and studies on human antral follicles exposed to chemotherapy indicate high malformation and abortion rates, and significant DNA damage.
I do not recommend to use such eggs for reproduction.
Recent ref:
Emergency IVF versus ovarian tissue cryopreservation: decision making in fertility preservation for female cancer patients.
Chung K, Donnez J, Ginsburg E, Meirow D.
Fertil Steril. 2013 May;99(6):1534-42.

Dror Meirow, Israel

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