(Photo: Lina Smith)
The ravages of cancer treatments can leave a woman infertile. That's why doctors at Oxford University in the UK extracted ovarian tissue from a toddler, then incubated the eggs until they were mature. These eggs can be frozen for future pregnancies once the child grows up.
It's a revolutionary new treatment that's being called "the holy grail of fertility treatments." It offers new hope to prepubescent girls with cancer. The Telegraph reports:
Prof Tim Child, from Oxford University, said: “Cancer treatment can be very successful but the drugs can completely damage the ovaries. This gives hope to young girls who could otherwise be sterilised by chemotherapy or radiotherapy.”
“It’s extremely exciting because it's two simultaneous approaches showing effect,” he said.
While the process was able to identify the most mature of the immature eggs, which were then incubated overnight, to assist their survival, he said he was hopeful that in future, scientists would be able to expand the technique to retrieve thousands more specimens.