Male fertility can be restored after cancer treatment

An injection of banked sperm-producing stem cells can restore fertility to male primates who become sterile due to cancer drug side effects, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Magee-Womens Research Institute. In their animal study previously frozen stem cells restored production of sperm that successfully fertilised eggs to produce early embryos.
Some cancer drugs work by destroying rapidly dividing cells. As it is not possible to discriminate between cancer cells and other rapidly dividing cells in the body, the precursor cells involved in making sperm can be inadvertently wiped out leaving the patient infertile, said senior investigator Kyle Orwig, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, Pitt School of Medicine, and an investigator at Magee-Womens Research Institute.
‘Men can bank sperm before they have cancer treatment if they hope to have biological children later in their lives,’ he said. ‘But that is not an option for young boys who haven