NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cancer patients should be informed of the options for fertility preservation and future reproduction before undergoing cancer treatments, according to a report in the June issue of Fertility and Sterility.

The Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama prepared the report to help guide "cancer and fertility specialists in attempts to preserve fertility in cancer patients and to aid them in reproducing after cancer treatment."

The only established methods of preserving fertility are sperm cryopreservation in men and embryo cryopreservation in women, the authors report, though experimental methods include cryopreservation of testicular tissue, ovarian tissue, or oocytes.

Younger patients with treatable cancers should also be offered fertility preservation, the committee notes. Patients and/or their parents should be informed of options, benefits, and risks and referred as necessary to fertility specialists.

Patients whose tissues, gametes, or embryos are stored should give precise instructions about the disposition of the stored tissues in the event of their death, unavailability, or other contingency, the report suggests.

Their uncertain future should not, however, be cause to deny them assistance in preserving fertility or in reproducing, the committee notes.

Pregnancy outcomes in cancer survivors do not result in worse outcomes than other pregnancies, the report indicates. Nevertheless, preimplantation genetic diagnosis techniques may ethically be used to screen embryos for inheritable cancers and other genetic disorders.

"Cancer patients have important needs in preserving and exercising fertility that cancer and fertility specialists should try to protect," the committee concludes.

Fertil Steril 2005;83:1622-1628.

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