Searching for evidence of disease and malignant cell contamination in ovarian tissue stored from hematologic cancer patients

Abstract

Preoperative imaging prevented operations and storage of tissue with cancer. Evaluation of stored ovarian tissue for MRD using sensitive markers is essential to increase safety and to prevent reimplantation of tissue with malignant cells.

VEGF and bFGF increase survival of xenografted human ovarian tissue in an experimental rabbit model

“…Examine the possible presence of malignant cells in ovarian cortex from patients with tumors after xenografting of the ovarian tissue into host [21,22], analyze follicular developmental potential [23], discuss oocyte quality and ovarian histology and function after cryopreservation [24,25], investigate the methods improving ovarian function and reducing apoptosis after transplantation [20,26,27]. In our study, the ovarian xenotransplantation used pharmacological angiogenic factor in a rabbit model to improve angiogenesis after transplantation.…”

Is transplantation of a few leukemic cells inside an artificial ovary able to induce leukemia in an experimental model?

“…Several studies have identified malignant cells in cryopreserved ovarian tissue of leukemia patients by sensitive PCR [17][18][19] and flow cytometry [20] analysis. In one study, the tumor-inducing potential of leukemic cells present in ovarian tissue was demonstrated in a xenografting model [18].…”

Detection of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in ovarian cortex pieces during the process of cryopreservation

“…Nevertheless, despite these positive aspects and the increasing number of live births after successful ovarian tissue transplantation, ovarian cryopreservation still should be considered experimental [17]. Indeed, there is concern regarding the possible presence of malignant cells in the ovarian tissue, which could lead to recurrence of the primary disease after reimplantation [7,10,18,19]. Hence, it remains difficult at present to establish the imbalance between the real chances of pregnancy this technique can offer, versus the risk of mainly reintroducing the disease and also reducing the ovarian reserve.…”

“…HL and NHL are frequent indications for ovarian tissue freezing and are commonly considered at minimal risk of ovarian involvement [18,20,21]. However, caution is required due to the results of two studies [22,23].…”

“…), showed 4.3 % and 9.8 % of ovarian involvement by HL or NHL cells, respectively [23]. Few experimental studies have tested the human ovarian tissue from both HL or NHL and failed to show evidence of ovarian involvement by lymphoma cells [18,20,24,25]. To date, 15 auto-transplantations have been reported in HL patients and 6 in NHL without any disease recurrence, knowing that the follow-up after autotransplantation in one of the HL patients is now up to 8 years [19,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”