[Are there indications for cryogenically preserving ovarian tissue in gynecologic oncology?]

One of the essential goals of ovarian tissue cryopreservation is to preserve the fertility of young women who will be undergoing sterilizing anticancer treatments, as cryopreservation of sperm serves in men. However, maturation of gametes after thawing has not yet been realized in humans and pregnancies have only been obtained in animal models. It is nonetheless possible today to cryopreserve the ovarian tissue of patients who have nothing to lose as their follicular reserve would in any case be destroyed or severely depleted by cancer treatment. In gynecologic oncology, ovarian tissue cryopreservation may be performed when curative or prophylactic ovariectomy must be undergone, or when chemotherapy with high-dose alkylating agents is planned, particularly in cases requiring chemotherapy combined with pelvic radiation. These clinical situations may be encountered in young women and especially in girls with early-onset forms of ovarian, cervical, uterine, or vaginal cancers. These situations, nevertheless, remain rare as gynecological cancers occur most often in the post-menopausal woman.