Hospital Saving Ovaries For Cancer Patients
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Children's Memorial Hospital has begun experimenting with young female cancer patients, by removing an ovary in anticipation that the patient may want to have a child once she hits adulthood.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mary Frances Bragiel reports, the practice is called an Ovarian Harvest.
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Barbara Lockart, who is a nurse practitioner at Children's Memorial Hospital says the ovaries are full of immature eggs called follicles. After chemotherapy or radiation, the follicles can be destroyed, which is why some young patients are opting to have an ovary removed and then frozen.
"At a future use, (they) can take the follicles out and be able to mature those follicles into eggs," Lockhart said.
Those eggs, if they develop, can then be used for in-vitro fertilization.
One woman, described as being a 20-something, is the only patient at this point to undergo the experimental surgery at the hospital.
Lockart says those who qualify are girls who have reached puberty and are at risk of infertility to due cancer treatment.
