Semen Cryopreservation for Patients with Malignant or Non-malignant Disease: Our Experience for 10 Years

Purpose: We report our experience in 10 years of sperm cryopreservation to reveal the present state of the cryopreservation project.

Materials And Methods: 42 germ cell tumor, 110 non-germ cell tumor and 2 non-malignant disease patients who visited our clinic for semen cryopreservation were retrospectively analyzed.

Results: Only 7 (20%) out of 35 unilateral testicular tumor patients who had received no chemotherapy met the WHO criteria for sperm concentration and motility. However, there were no patients with azoospermia. Three testicular tumor patients with previous chemotherapy and 4 retroperitoneal germ cell tumor patients had poor sperm concentrations and motilities. Twenty (52%) out of 38 non-germ cell tumor patients without previous chemotherapy met the WHO criteria. In contrast, only 9 patients (13%) met the WHO criteria among 72 patients with previous chemotherapy. Twenty-nine patients (40%) with chemotherapy were azoospermia. Totally, 74 (96%) of 77 tumor patients' semen without chemotherapy and 34 (45%) of 75 with chemotherapy were cryopreserved. Sperm from a patient with testicular torsion were cryopreserved.

Conclusion: Most cancer patients without previous chemotherapy, regardless of underlying disease, had abundant motile sperm. However, half of the patients who had received chemotherapy did not have suitable sperm for freezing. It is important to inform young cancer patients of the cryopreservation project immediately after the diagnosis is made.