Sarcomas are relatively common in the young and their treatment can impair fertility. Fertility preservation can be achieved via the cryopreservation of gametes after controlled ovarian stimulation before cancer treatment. A reduced response to hormonal stimulation in patients suffering from certain types of malignancy is reported. The purpose of this study was to assess the performance of oocyte cryopreservation in patients with sarcoma by comparing their outcomes with those of a population without cancer. Patients were matched by age with control women undergoing hormonal stimulation for isolated male factor infertility. The population included 84 women with a sarcoma and 355 controls. In the final analysis, 37 patients with sarcoma were matched in a 1:3 ratio with 109 healthy controls. Patients with sarcoma were generally younger and were stimulated with lower FSH doses. They did not perform worse than controls during stimulation, with an average retrieval of 10.6 oocytes vs. 8.1 in the controls. Linear regression on the number of retrieved mature oocytes confirmed that patients with sarcoma performed comparably to controls. In conclusion, patients with sarcoma can expect retrieval outcomes comparable to those of patients without cancer.
Keywords: fertility preservation; oncofertility; oocyte cryopreservation; ovarian stimulation; sarcoma.