1. Ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation in patients with central nervous system tumours
- Author
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UCL - SSS/IREC/GYNE - Pôle de Gynécologie, UCL - (SLuc) Service de gynécologie et d'andrologie, UCL - (SLuc) Service d'anatomie pathologique, UCL - SSS/IREC - Institut de recherche expérimentale et clinique, Nguyen, Thu Yen Thi, Cacciottola, Luciana, Camboni, Alessandra, Ravau, Joachim, De Vos, Michel, Demeestere, Isabelle, Donnez, Jacques, Dolmans, Marie-Madeleine, UCL - SSS/IREC/GYNE - Pôle de Gynécologie, UCL - (SLuc) Service de gynécologie et d'andrologie, UCL - (SLuc) Service d'anatomie pathologique, UCL - SSS/IREC - Institut de recherche expérimentale et clinique, Nguyen, Thu Yen Thi, Cacciottola, Luciana, Camboni, Alessandra, Ravau, Joachim, De Vos, Michel, Demeestere, Isabelle, Donnez, Jacques, and Dolmans, Marie-Madeleine more...
- Abstract
Study question: Is there a possibility of reseeding cancer cells potentially present in frozen ovarian tissue from patients with central nervous system (CNS) tumours? Summary answer: Malignancy reseeding in cryopreserved ovarian tissue from 20 patients with CNS tumours was not detected by histology, immunohistochemistry (IHC), molecular biology or xenotransplantation. What is known already: Ovarian metastasis potential has been documented in patients with leukaemia, borderline ovarian tumours, advanced breast cancer and Ewing sarcoma. However, data on the safety of transplanting frozen-thawed ovarian tissue from cancer patients with CNS tumours are still lacking. Study design, size, duration: This prospective experimental study was conducted in an academic gynaecology research laboratory using cryopreserved ovarian cortex from 20 patients suffering from CNS tumours. Long-term (5 months) xenografting was performed in immunodeficient mice. Participants/materials, setting, methods: Subjects enrolled in the study were suffering from one of six types of CNS tumours including medulloblastoma, ependymoma, primitive neuroectodermal tumours, astrocytoma, glioblastoma and germinoma. The presence of malignant cells was investigated with disease-specific markers for each patient in cryopreserved and xenografted ovarian tissue by histology, IHC via expression of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and reverse transcription droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (RT-ddPCR) for quantification of GFAP and ENO2 gene amplification. Main results and the role of chance: Serial sections of cryopreserved and xenografted ovarian tissue from 20 patients showed no malignant cells by histology. All samples were negative for NSE and GFAP, although these neural markers were expressed extensively in the patients' primary tumours. Analysis by RT-ddPCR revealed no cancer cells detected in cryopreserved and xenografted ovarian fragments from subjects with a more...
- Published
- 2021