A new service in Hong Kong will allow female cancer patients to preserve their ovarian tissue as a means to regain their fertility after treatment.
Fertility issues are common in women getting cancer treatment as a result of chemotherapy medicines which can affect patients’ ability to become pregnant.
Often women in need of treatment do not have time to freeze their eggs or embryos, meaning they would not know whether they could have children until after finishing therapy. Ovarian tissue cryopreservation could, in this case, be a promising option.
The procedure, now available at a Hong Kong assisted reproductive technology unit, consists of a small operation to remove some ovarian tissue which is then frozen. The tissue may later be thawed and placed back into the woman’s body once the cancer treatment is finished.
“Before the patients undergo any kind of chemotherapy or treatment that can affect their reproductive ability, we can carry out surgery to extract ovarian tissue for preservation,” Dr Jacqueline Chung Pui-wah, associate professor of Chinese University’s department of obstetrics and gynaecology, told South China Morning Post.
“If in the future, they wish to have children after their recovery, we can carry out another operation to transplant the tissue on the ovary surface so that they can reproduce again.”
Chung’s team had been assessing the feasibility of implementing ovarian tissue cryopreservation in Hong Kong since 2019.
The researchers collected and froze 52 ovarian tissue samples from 12 patients, aged 29 to 41, which were later transplanted into 34 mice.
The findings, published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal in February, showed that most of the tissue remained viable after transplant.
Ovarian tissue cryopreservation has already been offered in countries such as Singapore, Thailand and the US for about 15 years. However, Hong Kong had only provided sperm, egg or embryo cryopreservation in the past.
Success rates are similar to standard fertility treatments such as IVF. Although the treatment remains relatively new, scientists say the results are extremely promising.
While acknowledging the importance of the procedure, Chung warned that the chance of getting pregnant after the ovarian tissue was transplanted back into the patient’s body would depend on many factors, including age, uterus health and embryo quality.
It was also possible that the ovarian tissue extracted before the cancer treatment could contain cancerous cells, she said, adding that pathologists would need to examine the tissue before transplant.
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