Transplant of cryopreserved ovarian tissue leads to live birth

A woman has given birth to the first healthy baby born after orthotopic autotransplantation of ovarian tissue, which had been cryopreserved before Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatment, according to a report in The Lancet, published online September 24.

In 1997, biopsy samples from the woman’s left ovary were retrieved laparoscopically and stored in liquid nitrogen before the then-25-year-old woman underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy for stage IV Hodgkin’s disease. Afterward, she required hormone replacement therapy because of ovarian failure. In 2001, hormone therapy was stopped because the woman wanted to become pregnant. During the next 2 years, she had only one ovulatory cycle and concentrations of reproductive hormones remained low.A week before autotransplantation, Dr. Jacques Donnez and colleagues at Universite Catholique de Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, performed laparoscopy to create a “peritoneal window” just beneath the right ovarian hilus, with the intent of inducing angiogenesis and neovascularization. The surgeons noted that the ovaries appeared atrophic.The frozen tissue was thawed and placed into the peritoneal window, where there was an extensive neovascular network. Viable follicles were observed at laparoscopy 5 months later, and the patient experienced menstrual bleeding and ovulatory cycles for the next 4 months. A surge in follicle-stimulating hormone was followed 3 weeks later by ovulation, from which the woman became pregnant (see Reuters Health report, June 29, 2004). A healthy baby girl was born on September 23.”Our findings open new perspectives for young cancer patients facing premature ovarian failure,” Dr. Donnez’ group writes. “Ovarian tissue cryopreservation should be an option offered to all young women diagnosed with cancer, in conjunction with other existing options for fertility preservation, such as immature oocyte retrieval, in-vitro maturation of oocytes, oocyte vitrification, or embryo cryopreservation.”(Source: Lancet 2004: Reuters Health News: Oncolink: September 2004.)