Male fertility preservation

by Christine Wyns

Thanks to chemo- and radiotherapeutic intervention, between 70% and 80% of children suffering from cancer survive their malignancies. However, a major and psychologically traumatic residual issue is fertility in adult life, which can be severely impaired by such therapy, regardless of the patient's pubertal status at the time of cytotoxic treatment (Howell and Shalet, 2001). The population affected by fertility-threatening therapies is still on the increase, since these treatments are also used to cure benign diseases such as drepanocytosis, thalassemia major, aplastic anemia or systemic autoimmune diseases. Read more »