Saint Marianna University School of Medicine Hospital is scheduled to shortly begin clinical research on ways to freeze and preserve human ovary cells.
The research is aimed at helping female patients of cancer and connective tissue disease who may lose ovary functions due to treatment for their illnesses, said doctors at the hospital in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.
If researchers can establish a method, patients can preserve some of their ovary cells before undergoing treatment for cancer, for example. They can have the cells put back into their bodies later so the cells can produce estrogen again, the doctors said.
Anticancer drugs and radiation treatment can damage ovary functions and reduce estrogen, possibly causing heart attack and osteoporosis.
Approved by the medical school's ethical committee, researchers led by professor Bumpei Ishizuka will take ovary cells from 50 patients aged between 18 and 39 over the next three years.