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Cancer treatment like chemotherapy and radiotherapy can damage the ovaries and make women infertile. Ovarian tissue transplant can increase women’s chance of becoming mothers. In ovarian tissue transplant, all or part of the ovary is removed and frozen before it is damaged so that it can be used later. This fertility preservation treatment is available for girls who have not started ovulating.
But there is a small risk that in those with cancer, the ovarian tissue may contain cancerous cells, raising the chances of the cancer returning after transplant. Women with leukaemia and cancers originating in the womb, are unlikely to be offered transplant. To prevent the risk, scientists from the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, took ovarian follicles and ovarian tissue from patients due to cancer treatment.
They removed the cancerous cells from the ovarian tissue, keeping a “scaffold” made up of proteins and collagen. Scientists were able to grow the ovarian follicles on this engineered scaffold of ovarian tissue. The artificial ovary was then transplanted into mice, where it was able to support the survival and growth of the ovarian cells.
Ovarian tissue transplants contained thousands of eggs that would enable women to get pregnant “naturally”, as opposed to IVF where an egg is fertilised in a laboratory and then returned to the womb. Women can restart their periods after cancer treatments, this prevents the need for hormone replacement therapy.
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