Study suggests most female childhood cancer survivors have good chance of becoming pregnant

via counselheal.com

"For women who have survived childhood cancer, the impact of modern chemotherapy regimens on the likelihood of becoming pregnant is generally small, and most have a good chance of conceiving, according to one of the largest studies of its kind published in The Lancet Oncology. 

In contrast, male survivors of childhood cancer are significantly less likely to have children, especially if they are treated with chemotherapy regimens containing high doses of commonly used alkylating drugs and cisplatin.

Now that more than 80% of children with cancer are living into adulthood, whether they can have children is a major concern for them. Growing awareness of the adverse effects of radiotherapy has led to the use of more intensive chemotherapy regimens for the treatment of childhood cancers. 

Previous research has shown that fertility can be compromised by several types of chemotherapy, mainly alkylating drugs. However, little is known about the dose effects on pregnancy from newer drugs, such as ifosfamide and cisplatin, in survivors of childhood cancer.

Dr Eric Chow from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, USA and colleagues used data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) which tracks people who were diagnosed with the most common types of childhood cancer before the age of 21 and treated at 27 institutions across the USA and Canada between 1970 and 1999, and who had survived at least 5 years after diagnosis.

In this study, they examined the impact of various doses of 14 commonly used chemotherapy drugs on pregnancy and livebirth in 10938 male and female survivors, compared with 3949 siblings. The study specifically focused on survivors treated with chemotherapy and who did not receive any radiotherapy to the pelvis or the brain..."

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http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-03-female-childhood-cancer-survivors-good.html