Doctors at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) are the first in the country to use a breakthrough method that gives new hope to women whose wellness is affected by cancer, and still want to have a child. While a woman goes through chemotherapy, the method preserves one of her ovaries by extracting it, slicing it into smaller pieces and keeping the tissue frozen for up to a few years, and then finally transplanting the tissue back into the patient’s body.
According to Dr Yu Su Ling, director of SGH’s Centre for Assisted Reproduction (Care), medical advances have improved cancer patients’ wellbeing, and led to higher survival rates, but these treatments can often bring on upsetting side effects. In women, it is common for chemotherapy to lead to early menopause, ovarian failure and an inability to have children, but, as the first patient to undergo the new procedure has found out, this doesn’t have to be the case.
The 40-year-old breast cancer survivor, who only wanted to be known as Madam Tan, was already entering menopause when her ovary was replanted. However, now she has had the surgery, she has had her periods again and doctors say she should be able to conceive a child. Madam Tan, a customer service officer, said she is ‘very happy to be back to normal. If possible, I intend to have children – and I want to do it naturally.’
Madam Tan has been married for five years without having any children, having been diagnosed with cancer three years ago. Her doctor recommended orthotopic ovarian transplantation, and, in 2010, she gave it a go and her ovary was extracted and stored before chemotherapy treatment was started. Now, 12 other women at SGH, aged between 19 and 40, have had their ovaries taken out and frozen.
Using keyhole surgery, which is a minimally invasive technique where surgical instruments are inserted through small incisions in the body, your ovary is cut into thin, one millimetre strips so that the blood vessels can re-form quickly after the transplant, Dr Yu explained. The doctors then use liquid nitrogen to cool the strips to about minus 200 degrees Celsius and store them, returning them to your remaining ovary once you are free of the disease – usually at least two years later. According to Dr Yu, this procedure can help with many forms of cancer.
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