Nagpur: As the number of long-term cancer survivors is increasing, fertility has become an important quality of life issue in last few years.Total 4-5% of newly diagnosed cancer patients are younger than 35 years of age.
Loss of reproductive potential is one of the most distressing adverse consequences of successful cancer treatment and can affect the quality of life of cancer survivors.
Therefore, oncofertility care has emerged as an integral part of cancer care from diagnosis to survivorship.Dr Sadhana Patwardhan, joint secretary of Fertility Preservation Society of India, said fertility preservation is not just preserving gametes (sperms/oocytes) and embryos but a complete ‘oncofertility care’ now.“Cancer diagnosis was seen as a death sentence some 40 years ago.
Increasing and long-term survivorship in cancer has brought attention to addressing quality of life issues like the ability to create a family after cancer treatment and maintaining proper endocrine function,” said Dr Patwardhan.As per national cancer registry of India, 11.4 lakh people have some form of cancer at present, of which 30-75% of males and 40-80 % of females have problems with fertility at some point after completion of cancer treatment.
Despite recent advances in the available techniques, fertility preservation services still remain underutilized, Dr Patwardhan said.“There are several barriers in implementation of comprehensive and equitable fertility preservation practice.
Lack of referral pathways and model of care for oncofertility services, inequitable access based on cost, and lack of health literacy are the issues.
There is a shortage of trained staff who can deliver these services,” said Dr Patwardhan.Currently, several options are available for fertility preservation in young cancer patients.
However, the only established option for male patients is sperm cryopreservation.
For women, both embryo cryopreservation and oocyte cryopreservation, are considered as well established methods.Ovarian tissue cryopreservation at the moment is offered in research setting but does predict a promising additional method for fertility preservation for future.
It is the only option for pre-pubertal girls who want to preserve fertility before cancer treatment.