Fertility-sparing options for cancer patients.

Overview

Fertility preservation is becoming an integral part of cancer care among women of reproductive age. Despite advances in the treatment of pelvic malignancies, all the currently available treatment approaches, including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery, place women at high risk for future fertility impairment. With improved long-term survival rates associated with cancer, expanding the reproductive options available is of high priority. Several fertility preservation options are available today for women with gynecologic and non-gynecologic malignancies. Depending on the underlying oncological entity, these can include the following procedures whether alone or in combination: oocyte cryopreservation, embryo cryopreservation, ovarian tissue cryopreservation, ovarian transposition, and trachelectomy. The purpose of this review is to provide the most up-to-date information on the aforementioned fertility-preserving approaches and highlight the current challenges, drawbacks, and areas of research where more data are still very necessary to optimize outcomes in young female oncological patients desiring pregnancy in the future.