Fertility hope for boys left sterile by cancer
Revolutionary transplants offer ‘real hope’ to children who face infertility as a result of their treatment
MEN left infertile by childhood cancer treatment could soon become fathers, thanks to new fertility transplants.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh and Oxford University will seek permission in the new year to start clinical trials of the treatment in humans for the first time.
The procedure means childhood cancer survivors could be able to father children who are biologically their own, instead of relying on sperm donors.
Cancer is affecting growing numbers of children, with cases in the UK rising by around 24 per cent since the 1990s. Scientists believe increased pollution is partly driving the rise.
Experts said progress on this fertility treatment would bring “real hope” to boys who have to undergo treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy before puberty, which can damage their ability to make sperm in adulthood.
Over-16s facing cancer treatment are usually able to produce sperm that can be frozen in case it is needed for future fertility treatment but many younger boys do not have this option.
Since 2016, scientists in Edinburgh and Oxford have been taking and freezing biopsies of healthy testicular tissue from children and teenagers with cancer before they start treatment, in the hope that the technology would evolve to help them father babies in future.
If permission is granted for trials to go ahead, it will be the first time they have been able to reimplant these tissue samples into cancer survivors.
Research in animal studies has shown the tissues develop inside the body and produce sperm which can be extracted for use in IVF treatment and lead to a healthy baby.
“We are all very excited about it,” said Professor Rod Mitchell, lead researcher of the project at the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh.
“The fact that we [seeking] approval to start trials is positive news for the patients and their parents and carers involved in our research, who are [very] enthusiastic about the programme.”
His team is confident the procedure will work in humans after a trial on monkeys carried out in the United States in 2019 led to the birth of baby rhesus macaque called Grady, the first primate to be born using the technique.
A similar treatment using ovarian tissue is already used in women who have cancer treatment before reaching puberty and later want children.
Now several centres in Europe are ready to begin trialling the transplant technology in young men, with researchers in Edinburgh and Oxford hoping to apply jointly to medical and fertility regulatory bodies within the next year to get approval to start trials.
If successful, it means the first UK patients could receive the fertility treatment within two to three years.
Sarah Norcross, director of Progress Educational Trust, a fertility research charity said: “This is an ingenious method of seeking to restore male fertility and could be of immense benefit to men whose fertility has been lost or compromised during childhood.”