Fertility Preservation in Young Women With Cancer: an International Registration Study From the International Network on Cancer, Infertility and Pregnancy (INCIP)

Cancer is the second leading cause of death during the reproductive years. The long term survival improves for most cancers, reaching 80% for pediatric cancer and more than 70% for cancers in adults between 20 and 49 years of age. Early detection and improvements in cancer treatment contribute to these figures. As a result, quality of life of which preservation of fertility is one aspect, becomes more important. Fertility may however be influenced by surgery and by the gonadotoxic effects of chemo and/or radiotherapy. Therefore, fertility sparing treatments are offered to young patients in order to maintain the wish to conceive after cancer treatment. This however is associated with deviation of standard treatment and many different strategies are applied among different centers. In addition, there is a lack of studies investigating the oncological safety of these fertility sparing treatment protocols. The results of this study will enable us to better inform clinicians and patients on the efficacy of fertility sparing cancer treatment.

Objective:

To record the incidence, treatment and long term follow up of fertility preserving cancer treatment. Both the oncological and fertility outcome are recorded.

Study design: International multicentre prospective observational trial

Study population: All patients with a cancer for whom a fertility preserving cancer treatment is applied. The results of the study population are compared to young women undergoing standard cancer treatment.