Lyon, France – Doctors have removed eggs from young female cancer patients and – for the first time – brought the eggs to maturity before freezing them, giving the girls a better chance to one day have children.
Previously, scientists had thought viable eggs could be obtained only from girls who had undergone puberty.
“We didn’t expect young girls to have eggs that could withstand the process of maturation,” which involves adding hormones, said Dr. Ariel Revel, who led the research at the Hadassah Hospital in Israel.
The research will be presented today at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Lyon.
In related work, Canadian doctors on Monday announced the first birth of a baby from eggs matured in a laboratory, frozen, thawed and then fertilized – a key development that holds promise for infertile women.
The baby girl was born to a woman in Canada, doctors told the conference. Three other women are pregnant from eggs that had been matured in a lab, frozen, thawed and then implanted, they said.
The 20 women involved in the study are infertile with an average age of about 30. None have a history of cancer. Until now, doctors did not know whether eggs matured in a lab could withstand the fertilization process, adding that the research is still in its early stages.
In the study involving young girls with cancer, Revel surgically extracted the eggs and then artificially matured them in a laboratory, with the idea of reimplanting them one day should the patient wish to have children.
