Protection from Cyclophosphamide-induced Testicular Damage with an Analogue of Gonadotropin-releasing Hormone

Abstract

With the increasing success of cytotoxic agents in prolonging the lives of patients with some malignant and nonmalignant diseases has come the realization that permanent damage to self-renewing cell populations may be induced. We are now faced with a sizable population of long-term survivors of Hodgkin's disease, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, choriocarcinoma, testicular cancer, and other diseases, in whom cytotoxic chemotherapy has resulted in permanent sterility. It has been estimated, for example, that at least 80 per cent of males treated with MOPP chemotherapy (mustine, vinblastine, procar-bazine, and prednisone) for Hodgkin's disease become azoospermic or severely oligospermic, and that approximately 50 per cent of females become amenorrheic.