Radiotherapy after ovarian transposition: Ovarian function and fertility preservation

Radiation dose to laterally transposed ovaries during external beam radiotherapy for cervical cancer

“…Haie-Meder et al [3] have reported that almost 85% of women undergoing radiotherapy for a wide variety of pelvic malignancies following lateral ovarian transposition will continue to demonstrate gonadal function for ovarian doses of less than 5 Gy. Other studies have suggested that an ovarian dose lower than 5 Gy is required to induce ovarian damage [10,12,14,19].…”

“…All the above dose measurements were performed at the four possible ovarian locations in phantom sections 25 and 26 using the medium field size. Dose measurements were carried out using a 0.125 cm 3 ionization chamber (M31002, PTW, Freiburg). Charge was collected by an electrometer (UNIDOS, PTW, Freiburg).…”

“…For these patients of childbearing age, the preservation of ovarian function is of major concern taking into account the high survival rate for cervical cancer [2]. The radiation dose absorbed by the ovaries during cancer treatment has been considered to be the most important predictive factor for ovarian damage [3]. External radiotherapy for cervical cancer may result in direct ovarian exposure with radiation doses exceeding 20 Gy and in permanent gonadal failure [4].…”

Gonadal Dysfunction After Radiotherapy

“…It is generally believed, however, that ovarian failure after radiotherapy is both dose-and age-dependent, with no reliable prediction of outcome for the dose range of 3-10 Gy (CHAPMAN and SUTCLIFFE 1986). HAIE-MEDER et al (1993) recently presented new results with three progonstic factors of ovarian castration: age over 25, MOPP chemotherapy and a total dose to the ovaries higher than 5 Gy after lateral ovaropexy. Based on their results, presume, for infradiaphragmal irradiation after lateral high abdominal ovaropexy (see Sect.…”

Sites of Failure in Breast Cancer Patients with Extracapsular Invasion of Axillary Lymph Node Metastases

“…This surgical procedure takes the ovary out of the high dose area of irradiation and may therefore reduce radiation-associated side effects to the reproductive organs [5,6,8,19]. Apart from radiotherapy, ovarian function can be impaired by ovariopexy itself and also by various chemotherapeutic agents [7,11,15,17,23,29].…”