title: Ovarian tissue harvested from lymphoma patients to preserve fertility may be safe for autotransplantation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ovarian failure is a common sequel to chemo/radiotherapy in patients successfully treated for cancer. Harvesting, cryopreserving and subsequently re-implanting ovarian cortical grafts can be used to re-establish reproductive potential in women with cancer. The safety issue, however, is of great concern because residual disease in autografted ovarian tissues might cause recrudescence of disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 30 non-obese diabetic severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/LtSz-SCID) mice were individually xenografted s.c. with frozen-thawed ovarian tissue from 18 patients with lymphoma [13 Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) and 5 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL)]. The animals were autopsied at 16 weeks, or earlier if cachectic. The xenograft, liver, spleen, sternum, para-aortic lymph nodes and thymus were prepared for histology, immunohistochemistry and human DNA microsatellite analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  None of the animals grafted with ovarian tissue from lymphoma patients developed disease. However, all 3 animals grafted with lymph node tissue from an NHL patient developed B-cell lymphomas that were confirmed as human in origin by DNA microsatellite analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ovarian tissue harvested before high-dose chemotherapy for HL or NHL may not carry a risk of disease transmission by autotransplantation, although the possibility is difficult to exclude completely.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Reproduction, Growth and Development, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. medssk@att.net
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Radford
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Varley
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Rutherford
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lieberman
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shalet
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gosden
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D016393:Lymphoma, B-Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D051379:Mice; D016513:Mice, SCID; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D010053:Ovary / Q000473:pathology / Q000637:transplantation*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000473:pathology; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous