Fertility Issues In Patients With Prostate Cancer
July 23rd, 2008 Posted in hormone therapy, prostatectomy, radiation therapyPSA screening helps doctors to detect prostate cancer (CaP) in men at younger ages. In the online issue of the BJU International, a research team from Norway address the issues of fertility as related to prostate cancer therapies.In Norway, the percentage of CaP patients aged under 60years has increased from 4% in 1986 to 11% in 2006.
Patients experience scattered testicular irradiation during pelvic external beam radiotherapy with short-term androgen-deprivation therapy. Researchers clam that this irradiation causes transient azoospermia. However, data on sperm counts following radiotherapy are lacking. Brachytherapy may preserve spermatogenesis but reduce seminal fluid volume.
Treatment options for infertility following the above procedures or radical prostatectomy include semen cryopreservation prior to CaP therapy or sperm extraction from the epididymis or testes afterwards. Younger patients are advised of the option to cryopreserved sperm. This can then be used for intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
Tags: fertility, sperm cryopreservation, transient azoospermia