Fertility preservation in women with diagnosis of breast cancer: A review study

Introduction: Although most of the patients with diagnosis of breast cancer are menopausal aged women but statistics showed that ۱۵-۲۵% of patients are in reproductive aged. In these women, adjuvant therapy such chemotherapy and radiotherapy are associated with decreased reproductive function. As a solution, fertility preservation at the time of breast cancer diagnosis appeared associated with a significantly higher likelihood of live births after treatment among women with breast cancer. This study aimed to investigate the fertility preservation among women with diagnosis of breast cancer. Methods: In this review study, researchers conducted their search in databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, ScienceDirect, Scopus and SID in the period of ۱ September until ۳۰ September ۲۰۲۱. The keywords which selected by MeSH strategy were included [(“fertility” OR “fertility preservation” OR “reproductive function" OR “reproductive preservation“) AND (“breast cancer” OR “breast neoplasm”)] AND (“reproductive aged women”]. Inclusion criteria was published articles in Persian or English languages, published in valid journal articles and conducted on reproductive aged women with breast cancer and women with no contradictions for pregnancy. Articles from “۲۰۱۰ to ۲۰۲۱” were selected. Overall ۳۳ articles have been searched. Screening the abstract and full-text of all retrieved articles lead to excluding ۱۰ articles and ultimately ۲۳ articles were used to write this study. Results: Information regarding the possibilities of having children after breast cancer treatment with or without fertility preservation is an important issue for reproductive aged women with breast cancer. Based on the published literature, fertility preservation techniques which can used in women with breast cancer are included ovarian suppression, oocyte and embryo cryopreservation, immature oocyte retrieval and in vitro maturation, and ovarian tissue cryopreservation. Cryopreservation of embryos is the most common technique for fertility preservation including harvesting eggs, fertilizing them in vitro, and freezing the embryos for later implantation. Results of the most studies showed that there is a link between fertility preservation and the probability of having children after breast cancer treatment so that women who underwent fertility preservation had at least one post-breast cancer live birth compared with those who did not undergo these techniques. Conclusion: Fertility preservation is a safe therapeutic program in women suffer from breast cancer and have a desire to have a child so that considering these techniques among patients with cancer is an important part of the therapeutic management.

Keywords:

Breast cancer , fertility preservation , reproductive aged