Oncofertility Review from Japan

Drs. Miyuki Harada and Yutaka Osuga, both colleagues in Japan, recently published a perspectives article in Future Oncology: Where are oncofertility and fertility preservation treatments heading in 2016? 

Below is an excerpt from the paper which assesses the state of oncofertility and the progress of the field in 2016. Congratulations to our colleagues on a job well done! Attached is a copy of the paper. 


With recent advances in oncology, the survival rates of cancer patients have greatly improved. Consequently, there is a greater emphasis on the preservation of fertility in cancer survivors. The concept of oncofertility, which unites oncology with fertility, was proposed a decade ago [1] .

Together with developments in assisted reproductive technologies (ART), there are several fertility preservation treatments available for patients wishing to have offspring [2] . This review focuses on the future directions of fertility preservation treatments. We discuss the concerns on currently available options and then introduce new approaches for fertility preservation.

1. Woodruff TK. The Oncofertility Consortium– addressing fertility in young people with cancer. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 7(8), 466–475 (2010).

2. Dursun P, DoĞan NU, Ayhan A. Oncofertility for gynecologic and non-gynecologic cancers: fertility sparing in young women of reproductive age. Crit. Rev.  Oncol. Hematol. 92(3), 258–267 (2014).