It is a new hope for many women. A 34-year-old French woman who was unable to get pregnant after treatment for breast cancer was able to give birth to a perfectly healthy child thanks to a new technique consisting of collecting her immature eggs before releasing them. freeze.
“This success represents an important step forward in the field of fertility preservation “, Rejoiced Michaël Grynberg, director of the department of reproductive medicine at the Antoine Béclère hospital in Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine), where this “world first” took place in the context of cancer.
A collection of 7 immature oocytes
Usually, women under 40 who are going to undergo a treatment that may affect their fertility, such as chemotherapy, are offered to freeze their eggs to preserve their chances of a future pregnancy. Thus, normally, mature eggs are collected after hormonal stimulation, but in hormone-dependent breast cancers, as was the case of Professor Grynberg's patient, stimulation was contraindicated.
His team therefore collected seven immature oocytes before maturing them in the laboratory for 48 hours , then to vitrify them (an ultra-rapid freezing method which allows better preservation), details an article published on Wednesday February 19 in the journal Annals of Oncology.
The patient was then treated for her breast cancer with chemotherapy.
“So far, there has been no successful pregnancy…”
After five years without a relapse, she was declared cured but was unable to conceive, due to the treatments received. Her oocytes were then thawed and inseminated in vitro. One of the five eggs thus formed was successfully implanted in her, and the patient gave birth in July 2019 to a healthy baby boy named Jules. “To date, there have been no successful pregnancies in patients treated for cancer from eggs that have been subjected to both in vitro maturation (MIV) and vitrification » , says Annals of Oncology in a press release.
“We show that this technique, even if it is probably a little less effective today that the freezing of eggs collected at maturity, "can still make it possible to have children “Said Michaël Grynberg to AFP. Two other pregnancies are currently underway at Clamart University Hospital after using the same technique, he added.
In breast cancer, about 40% of 40-year-old women become infertile due to their treatment, and 15% to 20% of 30-year-old women, estimates the gynecologist-obstetrician, underlining the importance of fertility preservation in young women treated for cancer.
