Artificial Ovary for Young Female Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

In recent decades, there has been increasing attention toward the quality of life of breast cancer (BC) survivors. Meeting the growing expectations of fertility preservation and the generation of biological offspring remains a great challenge for these patients. Conventional strategies for fertility preservation such as oocyte and embryo cryopreservation are not suitable for prepubertal cancer patients or in patients who need immediate cancer therapy. Ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) before anticancer therapy and autotransplantation is an alternative option for these specific indications but has a risk of retransplantation malignant cells. An emerging strategy to resolve these issues is by constructing an artificial ovary combined with stem cells, which can support follicle proliferation and ensure sex hormone secretion. This promising technique can meet both demands of improving the quality of life and meanwhile fulfilling their expectation of biological offspring without the risk of cancer recurrence.

The experience of female oncological patients and fertility preservation: A phenomenology study

“…Most published studies focus on recognising the factors that make fertility preservation techniques appropriate (the patient's age, situation, type of cancer, type of treatment and urgency), the types of treatments and the success rates (Arecco et al, 2022 ; Chen et al, 2022 ; Cho et al, 2020 ). In other words, they are based on the clinical and medical aspects of this issue.…”

“…Fertility preservation is defined as the application of medical, surgical and laboratory procedures to preserve fertility in young adults or adults who are at risk of losing it before the natural end of their reproductive life (Arecco et al, 2022 ; Harada & Osuga, 2019 ; Zaami et al, 2021 ). Two of the most commonly used techniques for fertility preservation in women oncological patients are the vitrification of ovules and/or embryos, and the freezing of ovarian tissue (Chen et al, 2022 ; Harada & Osuga, 2019 ).…”

Fertility Preservation in Girls and Women: State of Art and Future Possibilities

“…Oogonial stem cells and/or follicles obtained from induced pluripotent stem cells could be added to the artificial ovary to increase ovarian reserve [88,90,94]. Furthermore, mesenchymal stem cells added to the articular ovary could give greater support to follicular development [95][96][97]. If one of these methodologies could be proven effective and safe in human, it would maximize the potential of OTC and it would have many clinical applications relevant to fertility preservation and assisted reproduction.…”

Automatic Evaluation for Bioengineering of Human Artificial Ovary: A Model for Fertility Preservation for Prepubertal Female Patients with a Malignant Tumor

“…However, these options are associated with the risk of re-introducing cancer cells [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Ovarian tissue dissociation using enzymes followed by the selection of follicles for in vitro cultures is considered a relatively safe method with a low risk of introducing cancer cells [ 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”

“…The in vitro cultures of ovarian tissue and germ cells, including a range of biological scaffolds and artificial ovaries, is a promising technique for this [ 14 ]. The in vitro cultures of primordial germ cells can be performed in the absence or presence of a scaffold.…”