Renji doctors help girl with cancer have chance to have children

Local medics from Renji Hospital and Shanghai Children's Medical Center cooperated to help a 15-year-old girl preserve 11 eggs before receiving chemotherapy and stem cell transplant for leukemia treatment.

The girl started to have frequent fevers with unknown reasons two years ago and was diagnosed with leukemia at Shanghai Children's Medical Center. The medical treatment was not effective in controlling her condition and doctors decided to introduce stem cell transplants, before which large-dose chemotherapy must be conducted. This process will inflict a destructive attack on the girl's reproductive system and could cause irreversible damage, making her infertile as an adult.

Doctors at SCMC conducted a full evaluation on the girl's condition and prognosis with a stem cell transplant, and deduced she could enjoy long-term survival but would face childbearing issues in adulthood. Her doctors suggested the egg retrieval so the girl could reproduce.

The girl was treated by the fertility preservation team at Renji Hospital's reproductive medicine department, whose doctors conducted detailed discussions with the girl, relieved her mental pressure, and eased her pain in line with her condition.

"For patients like the girl, the safety during the perioperative period is crucial," said Dr Sun Yun, director of Renji's reproductive medicine department. "We conducted detailed discussions on risk control such as bleeding and infection before the egg harvesting surgery.

"The surgery was successful. The girl retains 11 eggs and will have the chance to have her own children in the future."

Sun said her department has established evaluation and patient transfer mechanisms with the oncology department of multiple hospitals to grasp the golden time before cancer treatment and help preserve young patients' fertility.

Ti Gong

The incidence of child cancer in China ranks second in the world and the most cases are blood cancers, which can be treated through stem cell transplants with a good prognosis. The survival of children with pediatric cancer has been rising gradually. The five-year survival rate, which means clinical recovery, is over 80 percent. This means more and more such children will grow into adulthood, raising concerns on her long-term life quality of life and and fertility.

Since many treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, stem cell transplants, and surgery can cause damage to such patients' reproductive ability, more oncologists, patients, and their families have raised awareness on the importance of fertility preservation.

"There is a golden time window before receiving cancer treatment. Medics can do profound evaluations on patients' conditions and expected survival to provide suggestions on fertility preservation and cooperate with reproductive medicine doctors to help such patients keep their fertility," Sun said. "For child patients transferred to Renji, we can provide relevant preservation on sperms, eggs, ovaries, and testicles in line with the patients' age and personal condition."