Fertility preservation of male childhood cancer patients

Every day, around five children receive a diagnosis of cancer in the United Kingdom, with boys slightly more frequently than girls. Luckily, the percentage of children surviving cancer continually increases currently over 80%; however, childhood cancer survivors are at risk of loss of fertility in adulthood, due to the treatments received. In 2016, a major follow-up study revealed that young boys who have undergone chemotherapy treatment, in particular those involving the use of alkylating agents, are less likely to become fathers than their siblings that had not developed a childhood cancer (Chow et al., 2016). This study aims at assessing what proteomics and transcriptomics changes occur in the immature testis after exposure to chemotherapy, to understand the mechanism of damage and develop a protective strategy. An in vitro culture system of prepubertal testis has been developed in the laboratory, using testicular biopsies collected from childhood cancer patients before the onset of chemotherapy. The project will involve the use of histological and culture techniques, mass spectrometry and the development of a novel transcriptomic analysis. The work will be done in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, with part of the experiments performed in Prof Mitchell’s laboratory.

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