Cancer Patients Get the Lowdown on Fertility Preservation

By Roxanne Nelson
Medscape Medical News

June 24, 2011 — As survival rates increase, issues affecting long-term cancer survivors are becoming more important. One of these is preserving fertility, and patients need to be made aware of their options. A new resource will make that easier for young adults, the parents of children diagnosed with cancer, and the physicians who treat them.

The Hormone Foundation, which is the public education arm of The Endocrine Society, and the Oncofertility Consortium at Northwestern University, in Chicago, Illinois, have launched a new initiative called SaveMyFertility. It is a multimedia resource for adult cancer patients and the parents of children with cancer who want learn more about options for preserving their fertility before and during cancer treatment and protecting their hormonal health after treatment.

In addition, it provides information and guidance to oncologists, endocrinologists, and other healthcare providers concerned with the reproductive health of cancer patients and survivors.

"Deciding how best to protect an adult or child's fertility should be part of every physician's discussion with a newly diagnosed young cancer patient," said Teresa Woodruff, PhD, director of the Oncofertility Consortium and member of The Endocrine Society's governing council, in a statement. "We created SaveMyFertilty to help patients and their physicians have this vitally important discussion and to provide information tools about fertility preservation."

Routine Referrals Still Not Made

As previously reported by Medscape Medical News, a recent study found that female cancer survivors who do not receive counseling about options for fertility preservation before treatment commonly have long-term regret and a reduced satisfaction of life, compared with those who were counseled. Even if patients decide not to opt for fertility preservation, the referral is still important.

"Some patients have described . . . feelings of being happy to have survived their cancer, yet have significant regret about not undergoing fertility preservation and not being satisfied with their oncology doctors' regard for the quality of their life after survival," coauthor Mitchell Rosen, MD, director of the Fertility Preservation Program at the University of California at San Francisco, told Medscape Medical News at that time.

Some research indicates that the issue of fertility preservation affects about 10% of cancer patients. Even though recent surveys suggest that oncologists are discussing the potential impact of cancer treatment on fertility, fewer than half of them routinely refer patients to reproductive medicine specialists.

Fills An Unmet Need

The SaveMyFertility initiative consists of 3 main components: a printed pocket guide series for healthcare professionals that outlines therapeutic options for men, women, and children, and provides talking points to improve patient discussion; the mobile iSaveFertility application that allows physicians to download the SaveMyFertility pocket guides and email the 4 patient education fact sheets provided by the initiative directly to patients in both English and Spanish; and the Web site, which offers printable versions of the physician pocket guides and bilingual patient fact sheets (English and Spanish).

According to The Hormone Foundation, all of the products were developed under the guidance of a cancer communications specialist and physicians who have expertise in oncology and endocrinology in women, men, and children.

The pocket guides will be distributed to more than 20,000 physicians in a wide range of specialties, including oncology, pediatric oncology, obstetrics and gynecology, urology, and reproductive endocrinology.

"SaveMyFertility helps fill an unmet need for cancer patients and their doctors," said Patricia Green, director of The Hormone Foundation, in a release. "Faced with only a few weeks between diagnosis and treatment to preserve fertility, SaveMyFertility provides patients with key questions to ask and information they need to effectively partner with their doctors in critical decisions surrounding their care."

The project was developed in partnership with The Endocrine Society and the Oncofertility Consortium. It was funded by educational grants from EMD Serono and Merck.