I’m in Israel for the Israel Endocrine Society meetings and have met a great number of people working on fertility preservation options for young people with cancer.  What strikes me about this work is how hard the scientific community is working to come up with realistic options, especially for women and children with cancer; how thoughtful the medical community is about what can be offered to their patients and how engaged the cancer advocate community is in promoting education about fertility risks and options.  A global community has emerged that is sharing ideas and best practices that creates a sense of shared purpose.  There are no easy answers for those young women who do not have time to undergo hormone stimulation and we do not want to promise options that are not realistic.  Having global partners means that ideas are constantly evaluated from a variety of perspectives and permits us to be pragmatic while we persevere.

My name is Tyler Wellington and I operate the histology core facility that serves Dr. Woodruff’s lab as well as many of the Oncofertility Consortium investigators.  Histology in the core is an involved process that takes ovarian and other tissues dissected from research animals and processes it first into microscope slides, and ultimately into digital images that researchers can use to determine everything from the size and shape as the tissue, to its composition, to the location of specific proteins and other important cellular components.  I’ll admit that the day-to-day of the histology core can, on occasion, become tedious.  I’m the one that, in stock footage of a laboratory on the local news, is in the background wearing a long white lab coat cutting thin sections of tissue for a slide or pipetting small volumes of liquid from one tube to another.  These small tasks, though, can never distract me from the big picture.

Reconciling and remedying the mental and health-related stresses of women facing diagnoses of cancer and infertility are enormous tasks charged to the Consortium, which means the daily tasks of the lab, however small, are always pieces of a larger and more important puzzle.  Good ideas, no matter how good, cannot work without good science.  Small changes on the laboratory bench can often lead to big changes in scientific ideas, and big changes is scientific ideas can lead to important changes in smaller stories.  Whether it’s the girl’s decision to become a doctor after attending OSA or the patient’s renewed hope for fertility after cancer treatment, small science, big ideas, and personal stories are always very connected in the Oncofertility Consortium.  I hope to use my space on this blog to look this, to examine the different ways in which science, ideas, and personal stories interact.  I feel privileged to have this opportunity and I look forward to any comments you might have.

Tyler W.

Jacqueline S. Jeruss, MD, Ph.D, a breast surgical oncologist and one of the founding oncology members in the Oncofertility Consortium™, and Dr. Teresa K. Woodruff (Thomas J. Watkins Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of The Oncofertility Consortium™) have co-authored a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Preservation of Fertility in Patients with Cancer.” (NEJM 2009; 360:902-911).

The Oncofertility Consortium™ is a nationwide, interdisciplinary and interprofessional group led by Northwestern University researchers, dedicated to the advancement of technologies that will provide improved fertility preserving options to cancer patients whose lifesaving treatments can threaten their fertility. Its goal is to address the scientific, clinical and psychosocial challenges that must be solved to expand the menu of options available and to raise consciousness among scientists, physicians and families about this critical quality of life issue.

Cancer treatments are increasingly successful in improving long term survival. However, these same life saving treatments can impact fertility: fertility preservation has become an important quality of life issue for cancer survivors. Fertility preservation interventions are very effective but must be utilized before cancer treatment can begin. Oncologists, and those who care for young cancer patients, must have the information and resources available to discuss these options with their patients.

This New England Journal of Medicine paper provides a review of the effects of cancer treatment on fertility, the current and future methods of fertility preservation, algorithms for their use in clinical practice and the importance of fertility preservation for in clinical decision-making. Breast cancer treatment is used as template for integration of care. The Oncofertility Consortium is a nationwide network of fertility preservation provider

In a webinar , scheduled for Tuesday, March 3 at 2PM CST, Dr. Jeruss and Dr. Woodruff will discuss the implications of the concepts presented in this paper and the new discipline of oncofertility with moderator Marla Paul.

The Webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, March 3 at 2 PM CST and will be available at http://oncofertility.northwestern.edu/events/webinars.

One of the main goals of the Oncofertility Saturday Academy (OSA) of Chicago is to provide a multifaceted support network to the high school female participants that will help prepare and foster their academic and career pursuits. The support network provided directly from Northwestern University and Young Women’s Leadership Charter, includes the scientists, clinicians, medical and graduate students and educators. Beyond the walls of these two academic institutions, it has been the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings of the high school girls who have played a key role in the development of this support network. Since the initiation of OSA, it has been the parents/guardians of the high school girls who have made the sacrifices and arrangements to attend the informational meetings, to pick up the high school girls from the after-school workshops during the work week, and to drop off the high school girls bright and early at 7:15 am on Saturday mornings to catch the bus to attend the Northwestern University sessions. It is because of this support from the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings of the high school girls that OSA of Chicago is having the inaugural Parent Oncofertility Saturday Academy (POSA) this coming Saturday, March 7, 2009 from 12:00 – 5:00 p.m. Northwestern University is actively preparing to host the 29 high school student participants and 58 parents/guardians. The students and parents/guardians will be bused to and from Young Women’s Leadership Charter School to enjoy lunch and participate in workshops led by Northwestern faculty, staff, and students. The parents/guardians will learn about the following:

· Scientific and medical concepts the high school girls learned during the OSA.

· Academic programs, funding opportunities and coursework requirements needed for the high school girls to pursue a degree in science or medicine.

· Variety of science and medical career options that are available to the high school girls.

While the parents/guardians participate in their workshops, the high school girls will be working on their oncofertility group projects that will be showcased at the program graduation and posted to the OSA website. Northwestern University is looking very forward to providing this opportunity to the parents/guardians. We hope that the parents/guardian gain valuable knowledge and skills to continue supporting the 29 high school girls as they continue to pursue their academic and career goals. Next week, visit the OSA website (osa.northwestern.edu) to view the photographs that will be taken at the inaugural Parent Oncofertility Saturday Academy (POSA).