The Human Reproduction Clinic of the University of Valparaíso is executing a three-year project that will allow this expensive treatment to be performed by people who do not have the resources to finance it.
REGION.- A cancer patient is practically doomed to infertility. Not necessarily because of the condition of your disease, but because of the treatments. The majority of them, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgeries that involve the total or partial removal of an organ, decrease or even eliminate the reproductive capacity of people.
“Leukemia, lymphomas, breast cancer, tumors of the central nervous system are super harmful to the ovarian reserves of women and the testicles of men. More than 80% may be left with irreversible failures in their reproductive function“, Explains the doctor Aníbal Scarella, co-director of the Human Reproduction Clinic of the University of Valparaíso.
Given this reality, the Clinic decided to combine the capacities of several professionals and the high-tech equipment it has, to develop a project that allows patients who do not have enough resources to undergo a procedure that is highly expensive, but for which they do not pay a single peso.
It is a fertility preservation treatment, which is already made available to those who require it, thanks to the fact that – after several years of trying – the center obtained financing from the investment line 6% of the National Fund for Regional Development. Thanks to this and in an unprecedented way in Chile and Latin America, people with cancer can now receive this treatment completely free of charge in the port city.
Technically, this action is called oncofertilidad. For its application, in 2020 the Regional Council approved 269 million pesos, which will be used to preserve the fertility of about 80 people a year, who can be boys, girls or adults of reproductive age.
From the UV Fertility Clinic, they highlighted the management of those who promoted this project within the Regional Council, such as the core Manuel Millones and who served as regional mayor, Jorge Martínez.
HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORK?
The pandemic delayed the arrival of resources. The Clinic received them only in September of this year. Despite this delay, the results are beginning to show: a few weeks ago, for the first time a patient received treatment to preserve her fertility, without her having to pay for it. The user arrived by referral from her oncologist.
“She is a patient who has breast cancer, who had a son but wanted more babies, had a new partner. Imagine being rebuilding your emotional life, facing this cancer and knowing that the disease is going to leave you sterile. For a person who is in these conditions, it is terrible ”, says Dr. Aníbal Scarella.
For the person, the system works as follows: Once diagnosed, the oncofertility branch of the UV Clinic offers patients to preserve their fertility before to undergo treatment to face cancer. The cells are cryogenized, to be protected, waiting for the moment when you want to apply a fertilization technique.
“The techniques can be freeze eggs, freeze embryos, freeze ovarian tissue in girls. For men, sperm can be frozen“Explains Scarella.
The Clinic has been treating cancer patients for oncofertility for some years. The value of these procedures was around between 3 and 4 million pesos, but now it will have zero cost for users with cancer up to the total limit of people that is covered with the resources of the FNDR. The only exceptions to oncofertility are in patients with certain specific medical contraindications, such as when their chances of survival are very minimal.
In the case of women, the condition they face is more dramatic. This is because, to preserve your fertility by having cancer, The AUGE-GES plan does not cover the cryopreservation of female gametes, in specific situations of breast cancer or other gynecological cancers. Here there is a discriminatory inconsistency, because, in men who suffer from testicular cancer, the plan monetarily covers the cryopreservation of their sperm.
“So this project now comes to work in two spheres: on the one hand, to bring a voice of tranquility, in a very difficult moment, for those who are diagnosed with cancer. But it also comes to do gender justice, because thanks to this regional coverage, women will also have access to preserve their gametes just as it happens with men ”, explains the doctor.
Public resources would be enough to finance the fertility preservation of patients for free for approximately 3 years. When the amount runs out, the Clinic has thought reapply and, in the meantime, give visibility to coverage in order to extend this opportunity to other areas of Chile.
“Our future is rather our mission, which is bring the best reproductive health conditions to patients regardless of their economic status“, Says the co-director of the Clinic.
“We have the best incubators, the best teams, the best professionals, we try to have the best spaces for break with the paradigm that those who have more, receive better reproductive health than those who do not have it“. complements.
HIGH TECHNOLOGY
The Human Reproduction Clinic of the University of Valparaíso (Hontaneda 2644, Valparaíso), is a pioneer in Chile and Latin America in preserving fertility in people with cancer, since in July 2018 it enabled the first unit to offer these therapies nationwide, as part of a program that operates in a network with hospitals and public health services.
In fact, it will be coordinated with the Oncology Service of the Carlos Carlos Van Buren Hospital, which is the regional reference center in this field. So also with the rest of the hospitals in the Valparaíso Region that make up the patient referral nucleus. In parallel, the entities attached to the National Cancer Law have been incorporated to extend these benefits to patients throughout the country.
Specifically, its Fertility Preservation Unit for cancer patients is in a position to perform surgical procedures extraction and cryopreservation of oocytes and sperm and also to house ovarian tissue samples extracted in the hospitals of the Region.
For this it has a cryogenics laboratory provided with two storage tanks for oocytes and embryos, one for ovarian tissue, one for semen samples and a special 100-liter tank for continuous supply of liquid nitrogen. To these are added two other tanks for daily work, remote monitoring sensors in embryo and gamete incubators and for temperature monitoring for optimal maintenance of the samples.
–
