Chapter 6 - Breast cancer therapy and reproduction

Summary

Younger women with breast cancer are more likely to have poor prognostic features, such as larger tumor size, regional lymph node positivity, high nuclear grade, estrogen receptor negativity and inflammatory disease. Treatment for breast cancer can impact fertility for a variety of reasons, including a toxic effect of chemotherapy on ovarian follicles, advice to delay pregnancy due to concern for recurrence of disease and the recommendation for 5 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy for hormone-responsive disease. As a result of higher survival rates among women treated for breast cancer, there is an increasing emphasis on quality of life among survivors, and fertility preservation is a key issue among young women undergoing therapy for breast cancer. Embryo cryopreservation is considered the more effective approach to fertility preservation. The process of ovarian tissue cryopreservation involves freezing thin slices of the ovarian cortex.