Deliveries following fertility preservation by ovarian tissue cryopreservation without autotransplantation—what should be expected?

Objective: To evaluate the delivery rate and to characterize patients following ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTCP) who did not undergo auto-transplantation. Methods and Materials: All consecutive cancer patients admitted to our IVF unit, from January 2004 to December 2015, who underwent OTCP for the purpose of fertility preservation without autotransplantation were analyzed. The cohort included 338 patients and was linked to the National Live Birth registry of the Israel Ministry of Health in order to determine whether the women delivered following the cancer diagnosis. Main outcome measures: Delivery rate following OTCP without autotransplantation. Results: During 6.4 years of follow-up, 30% of the patients delivered, with no differences in gravity, age at first diagnosis of cancer, type of malignancy, or the prevalence of relapse of malignancy between those who delivered and those who did not. Moreover, in multivariate analysis, those undergoing OTCP before the age of 30 and those suffering from breast cancer had significantly higher odds to conceive and deliver following cancer treatment without the need of autotransplantation. Conclusions: Further studies are required to elucidate the appropriate subgroup of patients with breast cancer under the age of 30 years, who will need OTCP. This information might aid both fertility specialists’ counseling and their oncological patients in pursuing the appropriate fertility preservation strategy.