Fertility treatment hope for cancer victims

Endometrial cancer, which affects the lining of the womb, is usually treated by a hysterectomy to remove the womb and ovaries, leaving patients unable to have children.

Sometimes patients can take hormone therapy in tablet form to slow down cancer growth but patients can experience side effects such as rashes and nausea.

Researchers in Italy claim an alternative method could now be possible after conducting a trial using an intrauterine device (IUD), published in Annals of Oncology.

The team wanted to find out if the cancer could be halted and reversed with an IUD which released hormones for six months to stop the endometrial layer of the womb growing, combined with injections of another hormone to stop the production of oestrogen – which promotes the development of the cancer.

Women could only take part in the study if they had early cancer which had not spread beyond the inner layer of the womb or suffered from a condition called atypical endometrial hyperplasia (AEH), which is a precursor of endometrial cancer

The IUD was left in place for a year and, if the cancer had not grown or recurred, it was removed, allowing the women to plan for pregnancies.

Once the patients had the number of babies they wanted, they were given hysterectomies to ensure the cancer could not come back.

The team was able to analyse results from 34 women aged between 22 and 40 who were treated at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan between 1996 and 2009.

Of the 20 patients with AEH, 19 of them responded successfully to the treatment initially, although four relapsed and had to be treated again later, the scientists found.

Eight of the 14 early-stage cancer patients showed no signs of disease after the treatment, two responded successfully initially but relapsed later, while the disease progressed in four.

Nine babies have been born among the women taking part in the trial and all the women are alive without evidence of disease, according to the authors.