The treatment used to save the lives of many young cancer patients can also leave them unable to have children of their own.
For two-year-old Talia Pisano, the risk of infertility is the price she’s paying to fight the kidney cancer that has spread to her brain.
But doctors at pediatric hospitals in North America are using a technique they hope will give patients like Talia a chance. They’ve removed one of the toddler’s ovaries, freezing it with the goal of implanting it years later, when she’s ready to have children.
“There's a lot of research that has to be done for this tissue to be usable for their children, but at least they have an opportunity to do something,” said Jill Ginsberg, a doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The technique has worked in the past – more than 30 babies have been born to women who have undergone a similar procedure. But whether it will work on someone so young, whose eggs are biologically immature, is unclear.
Few hospitals in Canada perform the experimental procedure. The surgery is done very rarely, with doctors taking into account factors like age, diagnosis and recommended treatment.
“It’s not something that is considered standard of care at this point in time,” said Sharon Abish, a pediatric oncologist at the Montreal Children's Hospital.
Abish said doctors do their best to decrease therapies that may affect fertility in the first place, so many young patients won’t have to endure this additional procedure.
“Many of the patients we are now treating without what we consider to be high risk for fertility, so it's not something we would recommend in majority our patients.”
But for Talia, the procedure might be her only hope at one day being a parent -- something her mother Maria Pisano appreciates.
“It seemed pretty amazing that we can do something like this and help her in a bigger way.”
With files from CTV News reporter Vanessa Lee
