New Fertility Treatment Available for Cancer Patients in NY Metro Area

Cancer patients who want to start a family in the future now have a new option. Montefiore’s Institute for Reproductive Medicine & Health is the only site in the New York metropolitan area and one of approximately 25 sites across the country to offer a new treatment option to preserve fertility for female patients undergoing cancer treatment. Offered in collaboration with The Oncofertility Consortium at Northwestern University, this procedure, called Ovarian Tissue Cryopreservation, removes one ovary and freezes the ovarian tissue before the woman begins undergoing chemotherapy. Twenty percent of the tissue is used for research and 80 percent will be held for the patient for use when she is ready to have a baby.

“We are pleased to now offer this promising new option for cancer patients who may want to conceive at a future time,” said Edward Illions, MD, who is the lead physician for the program.

This procedure, which is currently available for women of childbearing age from 18-42, is being offered as a possible choice for those who have to begin chemotherapy immediately because of the nature of their cancer diagnosis. It involves removing a section of ovarian tissue containing eggs, freezing them and then thawing them at a later date. Additional research will concentrate on techniques to isolate and grow immature follicles in the lab setting (called in vitro follicle maturation). Once matured, the eggs within these follicles can be fertilized to create embryos as in traditional In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

This procedure is a promising alternative to IVF, freezing embryos and freezing eggs, processes that require as much as three to six weeks to be effective.
Successfully freezing and thawing ovarian tissue and maturing eggs within the laboratory represents a breakthrough in fertility preservation for women diagnosed with cancer. First, the surgical removal of ovarian tissue would not cause a delay in cancer treatment for more than one or two days. Also, the procedure would not require hormone treatment, which is not appropriate for girls who have not yet undergone puberty. In fact, because a woman is born with her lifetime supply of eggs, girls as young as one year of age could eventually be eligible for this procedure.

Finally, since this procedure would not require immediate fertilization of an egg, it allows women who do not have a partner or access to donor sperm more control over their decision to have children.

At Montefiore’s Institute for Reproductive Medicine & Health, a complete range of advanced treatment options for men and women is available, which includes Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), Testicular Sperm Extraction (TESE), Blastocyst transfer, Cryopreservation, Assisted hatching, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PDG) and sperm donors. In 1986, the physicians at Montefiore were among the first in New York to establish a donor egg program. The center includes on-site operating suites, treatment and recovery rooms, and a full-service laboratory. The laboratory is open seven days a week for both andrology (for semen analysis and sperm preparation) and endocrinology (for analysis of hormones).