Fertility preservation in testicular seminoma

Abstract

Testicular cancer is the most common solid malignancy affecting males between the ages of 15 and 35, although it accounts for only 1% of all cancers in men. Germ cell tumors (GCTs) account for 95% of testicular cancers. Two broad categories of testicular tumors have been described, one pure seminoma (no nonseminomatous elements present) and the other is nonseminomatous GCTs. It is one the most curable neoplasm with 5 years survival rate of 98%–99% when diagnosed at an early stage. We present here one such case of metastatic seminoma, where the semen was cryopreserved for fertility preservation. Although the sample was oligoasthenospermic, a successful pregnancy and live birth was obtained with intrauterine insemination of the frozen sample in an controlled ovarian stimulation cycle. Testicular tumors can impair fertility after treatment in majority of patients. Fertility preservation methods such as semen freezing, sperm freezing using epididymal or testicular sperm extraction (TESE) or testicular tissue freezing provides hope for those who wish to father a child latter.