Do Fertility Preservation Outcomes in Patients Diagnosed with Lymphoma Differ Based on Cancer Stage?

This study aims to investigate whether oocyte stimulation outcomes in fertility preservation (FP) vary in patients with different stages of lymphoma. This is a retrospective cohort study conducted at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH). Between 2006 and 2017, 89 patients were identified with a diagnosis of lymphoma who contacted the FP navigator at NMH. Anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) levels and FP ovarian stimulation outcomes were collected for analysis. The data were analyzed using chi-squared and analysis of variance tests. A regression analysis was also done to adjust for potential confounding variables. Of the 89 patients who contacted the FP navigator, there were 12 patients (13.5%) with stage 1 lymphoma, 43 patients (48.3%) with stage 2, 13 patients (14.6%) with stage 3, 13 patients (14.6%) with stage 4, and 8 patients (9.0%) where staging information was not available. Forty-five of the patients proceeded with ovarian stimulation before initiating cancer treatment. Patients who underwent ovarian stimulation had a mean AMH level of 2.62 and median peak estradiol levels of 1772.0 pg/mL. Median oocytes retrieved was 16.77, mature oocytes were 11.00 and median oocytes frozen after completing FP was 8.00. These measures were also stratified by stage of lymphoma. We found no significant difference in number of retrieved, mature or vitrified oocytes between different cancer stages. There was also no difference in AMH levels in the different cancer stage groups. This suggests that even in higher stages of lymphoma, many patients respond to ovarian stimulation techniques and have a successful stimulation cycle.