Chemotherapy Drugs Apparently Cause Women To Produce New Eggs

First Posted: Dec 12, 2016 02:51 AM EST

A new study has recently revealed that women being treated with a common chemotherapy drug combination may develop more eggs in their ovaries after the treatment.

According to Indian Express, the study revealed that a therapy commonly used to treat Hodgkin's lymphoma apparently increases the number of non-growing eggs in women's ovaries. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. analyzed samples of ovary tissue collected from 14 women who had undergone chemotherapy and from 12 healthy women.

Researchers of the study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, found that the ovaries of the eight cancer patients, being treated with a drug combination known as ABVD, had a much greater incidence of immature or non-growing eggs compared with tissue from women who had received a different chemotherapy or from healthy women of a similar age.

The ovary tissue was also found to be in healthy condition, similar to tissue from those of young women's ovaries, Times of India reported.

"This study involves only a few patients, but its findings were consistent and its outcome may be significant and far-reaching. We need to know more about how this drug combination acts on the ovaries, and the implications of this," said lead researcher Evelyn Telfer, professor at University of Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, if further study can determine the mechanism by which treatment with ABVD results in increased production of eggs, this would help experts have a better understanding of how women might be able to produce more eggs during their lifetime, which was until recently thought to be impossible, researchers said.

Reports have also revealed that additional studies are needed to identify the separate impact of each of the four drugs combined to make ABVD -- known as adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine -- in order to better understand the biological mechanisms involved.

Needless to say that if the studies can determine these mechanisms, it will be a great medical breakthrough for those women who are desperate to produce new and healthy eggs.