Onco-Fertility Tumor Board is Vitally Important for Addressing Fertility Issues in Cancer Patients

Abstract

Some cancers and some cancer treatments can lead to temporary or permanent infertility. Infertility is a special issue which need to be considered and addressed in cancer patients who may face this issue due to their malignancy itself or due to the treatment offered to them. Our team had reviewed contemporary literature and came to the opinion that it is vitally important to establish a specialized board of experts who can have regular board meetings in which all selected cases of cancer patients are discussed who can potentially suffer from some form of temporary or permanent infertility. The relationship between infertility and cancer is being documented in various studies and systemic reviews published lately [1, 2]. Counselling of patients and their next of kin is also an important aspect of this proposed multi-disciplinary team (MDT) Board .Before making any consideration regarding the relevance of the issue of infertility in selected cases of cancer the multidisciplinary team has to develop robust processes in order to make sure that we will not be missing this important problem which our cancer patients may face at the time of diagnosis, treatment or later on as a late sequela of oncological treatment. Practice committee on onco-fertility consortium made clear recommendations highlighting the importance of expert team involvement. The proposals are being published in January 2021 issue of Journal of assisted reproduction [3]. This document provides a valuable insight regarding the establishment healthcare quality processes and their practical implications.