Sperm banking

Abstract

Improvements in cancer therapy have enabled a growing number of patients to recover and resume their preillness life-styles. In particular; numerous young patients are surviving to adulthood, raising concerns about long-term effects of cancer treatment on future reproduction. Sperm banking, with its demonstrated success in animal husbandry and in human artificial insemination, is currently attracting interest as a possible way of circumventing problems of mutagenicity and sterility in male cancer patients of reproductive age. Drawing upon clinical experience, this paper examines the feasibility of sperm banking for these groups of patients and overviews the essential points to be considered when counseling adult and adolescent male cancer patients who are contemplating their reproductive futures.