What are the basics of ovarian tissue cryopreservation at Northwestern?
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Ralph Kazer, M.D.
Professor, Ob/Gyn
Oncofertility Consortium
Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
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A third option, which also involves a research protocol, is the retrieval and freezing of ovarian tissue. This particular option is most appropriate for patients who have a very, very short time frame leading up to their treatment. A time frame which would not permit the medical part of the therapy required for harvesting eggs. Or, patients who, for some other reason, are concerned about the potential effect of the drugs that are used in emergency IVF on their cancer.
So these patients may enroll in the study, which involves surgically removing one of their ovaries and freezing or cryopreserving the ovarian tissue for later use. The technology for using that kind of tissue for making babies down the road is still very, very much cutting edge. Babies have been born after frozen tissue has been transplanted back into patients after they’ve had their cancer treatment, but the overall picture for this technology is very much in the future.
The protocol for freezing ovarian tissue is carried out at Northwestern as part of the Oncofertility Consortium. This approach provides for the freezing of ovarian tissue, which can potentially be used in two very different ways later on to help a patient have a baby.
In the first place, the tissue can be transplanted back into the patient and hopefully will regenerate and the patient would start ovulating in a natural way. This approach has been tried experimentally and on several occasions has been successful and babies have been born in several other places around the world.
The other potential strategy for using this tissue to provide for fertility preservation is to find a way in the laboratory to mature the tissue so that mature eggs can be retrieved from the tissue, subsequently fertilized, and then the use of normal in vitro fertilization technology can follow on to enable the patient to have a baby. The latter approach is still very much in the future, although we are very optimistic at Northwestern that the science technology that will be required to carry this out is on the near-term horizon.