Experts hail birth of baby to ex-cancer patient

Medical experts yesterday hailed the birth of the first baby born to a woman after an ovarian tissue transplant as a highly significant achievement that could help thousands of cancer patients become mothers.

Ouarda Touirat, 32, gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Tamara in a Brussels hospital, seven years after she had banked her ovarian tissue before starting chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"It is highly significant," said Professor Bob Edwards, who pioneered the technique that resulted in the birth of the world's first test tube baby Louise Brown in 1978.

"It now offers a different approach and immense hope to couples who have been treated for cancers," he told Reuters. "The problem always was that the treatment would damage the fertility of the patient. That is all by-passed now. That, in itself, is a wonderful breakthrough."

Professor Edwards said the work by Professor Jacques Donnez and his team at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels was one of the most significant advances in fertility treatment since the birth of Ms Brown.

Mrs Touirat became infertile after having chemotherapy. Professor Donnez and his colleagues re-implanted the ovarian tissue after she was declared cancer-free and 11 months later she conceived her daughter naturally.

"This is a wonderfully exciting story that brings new hope to thousands of women - we feel very honoured to have had a ring-side seat at this miraculous moment," said Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet medical journal which published details of Prof. Donnez's achievement in its online edition.

Cancer therapies such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy can leave girls and young women infertile by damaging or destroying the ovaries where eggs are produced.

Male cancer patients can bank sperm before starting cancer treatments. But female eggs are difficult to freeze and thaw for later use.

"It gives young female cancer patients another choice and more hope for the future," said Simon Davies, chief executive of the Teenage Cancer Trust in Britain, where six teenagers are diagnosed with cancer each day.

"Anything that provides another option for maintaining their fertility in the future is good news."

Gill Oliver, of the charity Macmillan Cancer Relief, described the breakthrough as an exciting development.

"It could have quite a significant impact because for any young person who has their fertility taken away as a result of cancer treatment it can be quite devastating," she said in an interview.

"The prospect of these females being able to regain their fertility is quite a huge improvement."

But Ms Oliver added that the procedure may not be suitable for all young female cancer patients and a lot more work will need to be done before it becomes more widely available.