Repro 372 Module 6 Content PDF

SECTION 01: THE FIELD OF ONCOFERTILITY Cancer and the therapies used to treat it can have a significant impact on the fertility of an individual. However, until recent years, fertility was mostly overlooked when dealing with cancer patients. Over the last few decades, the growth in the field of fer...

SECTION 01: THE FIELD OF ONCOFERTILITY Cancer and the therapies used to treat it can have a significant impact on the fertility of an individual. However, until recent years, fertility was mostly overlooked when dealing with cancer patients. Over the last few decades, the growth in the field of fertility, combined with advances in cancer treatment options, have changed the way fertility is clinically managed in cancer survivors. In this section, you will learn the ways in which cancer affects fertility and how the field of oncofertility has evolved to address this important gap in the clinical management of cancer and the preservation of fertility in cancer survivors. 1.2 DEFINITIONS AND APPLICATIONS Oncofertility is a specialty field bridging the gap between oncology and reproductive medicine. It emerged as an interdisciplinary field focused on understanding and expanding the methods of fertility preservation in cancer survivors. Although modern therapeutic advances in oncology have led to greater survival rates, cancer treatments can lead to a variety of reproductive problems. This is especially true for cancers of the reproductive system. **Oncology:** A branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. **Reproductive Medicine:** A branch of medicine that deals with prevention, diagnosis and management of reproductive problems. 1.2.1 WHAT IS CANCER? Cancer is an umbrella term for the abnormal and malignant growth of any of the body\'s own cells, generally due to a loss of the normal regulatory mechanisms that maintain cellular homeostatic control. Such aberrant cellular behavior can have a wide range of causes, and develop in an equally diverse number of ways depending on the causes and the tissue of origin. As such, the treatment of cancer presents quite a challenge. Unlike foreign pathogens, the abnormalities that make a cell cancerous are not easy to pinpoint, making such cells difficult to distinguish from a patient\'s normal cells. Thus, most therapeutic methods used to eliminate cancer cells will also affect normal cells, tissues and organs, which is why cancer treatments have such strong side effects in patients, such as anemia, hair loss, and loss of fertility. **Malignant:** An invasive type of growth where the tissue will aggressively invade and spread to other tissues. This is one of two main classifications of tumor growth, the other being benign. 1.3 WHY IT MATTERS: CANCER STATISTICS IN CANADA Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada; the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) estimates it is responsible for \~30% of deaths. - CCS determined 206,200 new cases of cancer, and 80,800 deaths from cancer in 2017. - Prostate cancer accounts for 21% of all new cancer cases in men. - Breast cancer accounts for 25% of all new cancer cases in women. - CCS estimates 1 in 2 people are expected to develop cancer in their lifetime. - A 41% increase in new cancer cases per year is projected for the year 2030. Thanks to improved diagnostic and treatment strategies, the survival rate for such cancers is above 80%, meaning that patients need to plan for the long-term impact of cancer. As such, issues of fertility in cancer survivors are an important area of research and a relevant public health problem. 1.4 WHY IT MATTERS: THE IMPACT OF CHILDHOOD CANCER Cancer also affects children, though it accounts for \