Infertility Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
Infertility Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy; Dept Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2021 May;260:198-202. doi: 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2021.03.041. Epub 2021 Apr 3.
To evaluate whether sperm banking is under-used in adolescents with cancer.
We reviewed our 33 years long experience of semen cryopreservation and identified male subjects with cancer aged 14-21 years who banked their sperm. We hypothesized as a referring model a constant rate of referral in every age category (uniform distribution). In addition, we evaluated whether the distribution of the referrals per age varied according to historical periods and compared semen quality in the different age groups.
Overall, 317 subjects were selected. A sharp increase with age emerged (p < 0.001): the number of cases augmented from 4 at age 14 years to 79 at age 21 years. This significant increase persisted even when focussing only on subjects older than 16-18 years. An improvement of the distribution of cases per age group emerged when limiting the analysis to the last decade of activity; however, the increase remained significant (p < 0.001). Finally, we investigated whether semen quality differed according to age groups and failed to show marked differences, suggesting that sperm banking even at the youngest ages could be of potential benefit.
This study confirmed that sperm banking is under-used in adolescents with cancers. Future studies should better clarify the determinants of this low referral and identify interventions that can improve the situation.
评估癌症青少年中是否存在精子库使用不足的情况。
我们回顾了我们 33 年的精液冷冻保存经验，并确定了年龄在 14-21 岁之间的患有癌症并储存精子的男性患者。我们假设，以恒定的转诊率作为参考模型（均匀分布）。此外，我们评估了转诊率在不同年龄段的分布是否因历史时期而异，并比较了不同年龄组的精液质量。
总共选择了 317 名患者。年龄呈明显上升趋势（p < 0.001）：14 岁时的病例数从 4 例增加到 21 岁时的 79 例。即使仅关注 16-18 岁以上的患者，这种显著增加仍然存在。当将分析仅限于活动的最后十年时，病例分布的分布得到改善；然而，增加仍然显著（p < 0.001）。最后，我们研究了精液质量是否因年龄组而异，结果未显示出明显差异，这表明即使在最年轻的年龄进行精子库存储也可能具有潜在益处。
本研究证实癌症青少年中精子库的使用不足。未来的研究应更好地阐明这种低转诊率的决定因素，并确定可以改善这种情况的干预措施。
