To explore the new as well as the currently available options and strategies that can be used for emergency fertility preservation of female cancer patients, a systematic literature review was performed for all full-text articles published in PubMed in English language in the past 15 years according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Although under-utilized, several established, experimental and debatable options exist and can be used for emergency fertility preservation in females. Such options include emergency ovarian stimulation, embryo freezing, egg freezing, ovarian tissue freezing and autotransplantation, in vitro maturation, and ovarian protection techniques. This article describes and evaluates in detail the advantages and disadvantages of each option and suggests a new comprehensive multi-step strategy for emergency fertility preservation of female patients with cancer.
Keywords: Emergency fertility preservation; autotransplantation; cancer; cryopreservation; in vitro maturation; oncofertility; review.
Copyright© 2015 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.