Program wants to freeze at-risk ovaries

CHICAGO, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A research program wants to allow young U.S. women at risk from cancer treatment to lose their ovarian function to remove and freeze their ovaries.

Teresa Woodruff of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and the Institute for Women's Health Research at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine says the long-term goal of the program is to be able to extract and mature eggs from frozen ovarian tissues to initiate pregnancies once cancer treatment has been completed.

"This breakthrough may permit not only the potential preservation of fertility options for women and girls with cancer, but also can be applied to normal in vitro fertilization patients," said Woodruff.

"This procedure, when developed, could radically change the way infertility is viewed, reduce and eliminate embryo storage and provide better options for women who do not respond to hormonal therapy."

At this time, the only pregnancies resulting from this research are in mice. Eligible participants will have one ovary surgically removed at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in an outpatient procedure called a laparoscopy before starting cancer treatment, says Woodruff.