UCSD Medical Center will take part in new national study that's looking into ways to preserve the fertility of women being treated for cancer. Doctors say currently, women cancer patients have few options. KPBS reporter Kenny Goldberg has the story.
Chemotherapy is toxic to the ovaries and the eggs. Women who face that kind of cancer treatment can undergo emergency in vitro fertilization. But that doesn't always work. Another option is freezing a mature egg for later use. That's said to be ineffective.
UCSD's Dr. Jeffrey Chang says the study will test some new techniques of growing eggs.
Chang : In the past, they were grown in Petri dishes. But we have a new model which involves a gel, a three-dimensional gel, which we will place immature follicles in and allow them to grow to maturity.
Women who take part in the study will have one ovary removed before beginning cancer therapy. Doctors say that will delay cancer treatment only one or two days.
Kenny Goldberg, KPBS News.
