Breast cancer and ovarian tissue cryopreservation: Review of the literature

Abstract

Introduction: Ovarian tissue cryopreservation is a modern technique of fertility preservation, useful before using ovariotoxic therapies in the treatment of breast cancer. The aim of our literature review was to study ovarian cryopreservation experiences for women with breast cancer, to identify guidelines, constraints and results in the oncological and obstetrical fields.

Methods: We searched articles through the PubMed/Medline database, including all French and English references from January 2000 to October 2017. The combination of key words "breast cancer" and "ovarian tissue cryopreservation" allowed us to select 50 articles. We kept 18 publications which matched our subject.

Results: Sixteen cases of ovarian transplants among patients treated for breast cancer were published with 14 pregnancies, 11 births and 3 failures. Two cases of breast recurrences were published after ovarian grafting. However, the hindsight in this technique is limited, with a first transplant published in 2004 and only a low number of cases.

Perspectives: A national census and comprehensive gathering of data among the patients treated for breast cancer using ovarian tissue cryopreservation would make it possible to better evaluate the occurrence of pregnancies and the carcinological risk of this technique.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Fertility; Ovarian tissue cryopreservation; Pregnancy; Recurrence.