Fertility preservation in young breast cancer patients: addressing individual patient needs

Abstract

SUMMARY In female patients, infertility may be regarded as an essential loss of femininity and infertility after cancer, and is known to be associated with psychosocial distress. Fertility preservation is thus an important issue for young women diagnosed with breast cancer. Nevertheless, breast cancer patients have traditionally not been offered the most well-established methods for fertility preservation, such as embryo and oocyte freezing, as a rise in estradiol during standard stimulation protocols has been regarded as potentially deleterious in these patients. Alternative protocols for stimulation, such as those using tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors, have therefore been developed. Protocols including aromatase inhibitors have been demonstrated to be more effective than those using tamoxifen in terms of the number of oocytes and embryos obtained, while maintaining estradiol levels within the normal range of a menstrual cycle. Cryopreservation of immature oocytes and ovarian cortical tissue are methods that are still under development. Reports of children born after application of these experimental methods are currently increasing and these methods are thus gaining a place within the options for fertility preservation in breast cancer patients.