BACKGROUNDSperm cryopreservation before cancer chemotherapy is available for young patients with cancer. However, few patients bank their sperm. The authors evaluated by questionnaire the psychological impact of sperm cryopreservation.METHODSThe authors cryopreserved the sperm of 111 patients with cancer for free at the Yokohama City University (Yokohama, Japan). For the current study, questionnaires were mailed to 66 patients whose sperm had been cryopreserved. Fifty‐one patients (77.3%) with testicular carcinomas (n = 24), leukemia or malignant lymphoma (n = 19), or other cancers (n = 8) answered the questionnaire. The average age at collection and the period of sperm cryopreservation were 30.1 ± 6.0 (mean ± standard deviation) and 3.3 ± 2.2 years, respectively.RESULTSMany patients were informed of the deleterious effects of cancer chemotherapy and worried about infertility in the future. However, only half of the patients banked their sperm on their own initiative. Other patients followed their physician's instruction. Eighty percent of patients replied that sperm cryopreservation helped in the battle against cancer.Sperm banking especially was found to encourage every patient who banked sperm on their own initiative. After cancer chemotherapy, 70% of patients wanted to have a child. However, 60% of patients were worried about infertility in spite of having their sperm cryopreserved. No patients wanted to use cryopreserved sperm for fathering children if their spermatogenesis was restored. Sperm cryopreservation invigorated many patients with cancer after cancer treatments. The majority of patients recommended sperm cryopreservation to other cancer patients.CONCLUSIONSSperm cryopreservation encouraged young patients with cancer during and after cancer treatment. It should be recommended for all young patients with cancer. However, sperm cryopreservation did not eliminate their fear of infertility. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society.

Although accumulating preclinical evidence indicates the involvement of androgen receptor signals in bladder cancer (BC) development, its clinical relevance remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate the predictive role of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in BC recurrence in prostate cancer (PC) patients.We retrospectively reviewed 20,328 patients with PC diagnosed during 1991–2013 and identified 239 (1.2%) men having primary BC. After excluding ineligible patients, 162 patients made up a final cohort.With a median follow-up of 62 months, 38 (50%) of 76 control patients without ADT experienced BC recurrence, while 19 (22%) of 86 did in ADT group. Thus, patients having received ADT for their PC showed a significantly lower risk of BC recurrence (5-year actuarial recurrence-free survival: 76% v 40%; P < 0.001) and also had a significantly smaller number of recurrence episodes (5-year cumulative recurrence: 0.44 v 1.54; P < 0.001), compared to the control patients. A multivariable analysis revealed ADT as an independent prognosticator (hazard ratio, 0.29; 95% confidence interval, 0.17–0.49) for BC recurrence.This is the first clinical study showing that ADT significantly reduces the risk of BC recurrence.

These findings demonstrated that the OPTN gene is associated with POAG rather than NTG in the Japanese. Statistical analysis showed a possible interaction between polymorphisms in the OPTN and the TNF-alpha genes that would increase the risk for glaucoma.

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