Treatment with cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy is associated with significant gonadal damage in men, and alkylating agents are the most common agents implicated. The vast majority of men receiving procarbazine-containing regimens for the treatment of lymphomas are rendered permanently infertile, whereas treatment with doxorubicin hydrochloride (Adriamycin), bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine appears to have a significant advantage, with a return to normal fertility in the vast majority of patients. Cisplatin-based chemotherapy for testicular cancer results in temporary azoospermia in most men, with a recovery of spermatogenesis in about 50% of the patients after 2 years and 80% after 5 years. The germinal epithelium is very sensitive to radiation-induced damage, with changes to spermatogonia following as little as 0.2 Gy. Testicular doses of less than 0.2 Gy had no significant effect on FSH levels or sperm counts, whereas doses between 0.2 and 0.7 Gy caused a transient dose-dependent increase in FSH and reduction in sperm concentration, with a return to normal values within 12-24 months. No radiation dose threshold has been defined above which permanent azoospermia is inevitable; however, doses of 1.2 Gy and above are likely to be associated with a reduced risk of recovery of spermatogenesis; the time to recovery, if it is to occur, is also likely to be dose dependent.

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Spermatogenesis After Cancer Treatment: Damage and Recovery

Purpose Vincristine, etoposide, prednisone, and doxorubicin (OEPA)–cyclophosphamide, vincristine, prednisone, and dacarbazine (COPDAC) is derived from standard vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone, and doxorubicin (OPPA)–cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone (COPP) chemotherapy by replacing procarbazine with etoposide and dacarbazine for a potentially less gonadotoxic regimen for boys with Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL). Patients and Methods Five hundred seventy-three pediatric patients with classical HL were enrolled onto the German Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology–Hodgkin's Disease (GPOH-HD) -2002 study between November 2002 and December 2005. Boys received two courses of OEPA and girls received two courses of OPPA for induction. Treatment group (TG) -2 (intermediate stages) and TG-3 (advanced stages) patients received further two or four cycles COPP (girls) or COPDAC (boys), respectively. After chemotherapy all patients received involved-field irradiation with 19.8 Gy, excep...

Procarbazine-Free OEPA-COPDAC Chemotherapy in Boys and Standard OPPA-COPP in Girls Have Comparable Effectiveness in Pediatric Hodgkin's Lymphoma: The GPOH-HD-2002 Study

Male gonadal dysfunction in patients with Hodgkin's disease prior to treatment

Long-term complications of treatment and causes of mortality after Hodgkin's disease

https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(97)81465-3/pdf

E. Caccamo

Papers

Testicular dysfunction in Hodgkin's disease before and after treatment.