Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy
For women who go through chemotherapy to treat breast cancer, premature ovarian failure (POF) is a common consequence.
Unfortunately, POF can lead to issues such as amenorrhea (the absence of menstruation), menopausal symptoms, sexual dysfunction and infertility. However, recent findings from a Phase III clinical trial may offer patients new hope for avoiding POF — and perhaps reducing the risk of cancer recurrence.
Improved fertility and mortality
In the past, researchers have investigated preventing ovarian cycling during chemotherapy with hormone-suppressing drugs, such as goserelin. The goal: to preserve ovarian function.
But past studies have been inconclusive, says Halle Moore, MD, staff oncologist at Cleveland Clinic and Chair of the Taussig Cancer Institute Survivorship Committee. Many have used the return of menstrual bleeding as a surrogate for protecting ovarian function. That’s a potentially misleading endpoint because menstruation does not always indicate fertility and may not predict longer-term ovarian function. In addition, few data are available on pregnancy outcomes using this approach.
Dr. Moore is first author of a new study designed to bridge this gap in the literature, called the Prevention of Early Menopause Study (POEMS). She presented the results of POEMS at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.
POEMS was designed to determine whether adding goserelin — a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analog that suppresses the production of estrogen — to cyclophosphamide based chemotherapy would reduce POF in stage I-IIIA breast cancer, as compared to chemotherapy alone. The study focused specifically on estrogen receptor-negative/progesterone receptor-negative breast cancer.
Outcomes of interest included ovarian failure at two years — defined by amenorrhea for the prior 6 months and elevated follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) — pregnancy rates and survival rate. Among the promising study findings:
“The POEMS findings represent the first demonstration of improved fertility prospects when ovarian suppression with goserelin was administered with chemotherapy,” Dr. Moore says. “They provide reassurance as to the safety of this approach.”
Transforming treatments
Currently, there is no standardized method to prevent chemotherapy-induced POF. However, the POEMS findings could change the way oncologists treat patients with early-stage breast cancer.
The possible loss of fertility often influences the treatment decisions young women make; many decline therapies associated with POF. But this new approach may help ease that concern and increase the number of tools at oncologists’ disposal.
“The option of ovarian suppression with an LHRH agonist can now be offered to prevent unwanted ovarian failure, which may be particularly important for young women interested in maintaining future fertility,” Dr. Moore notes. “Ovarian failure can result in bone density loss, menopausal symptoms and infertility, but the latter is probably the greatest concern for young women who are still interested in having a family. Clearly, all of these are very important survivorship issues.”
Even though this study focused on specific types of cancer, the findings may prove to be applicable elsewhere, too. More research is needed, but Dr. Moore notes that such treatment may be useful for women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, as well as other cancers treated with similar chemotherapy, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
First-of-its-kind research investigates the viability of standard screening to reduce the burden of late-stage cancer diagnoses
Study demonstrates ability to reduce patients’ reliance on phlebotomies to stabilize hematocrit levels
Findings highlight an association between obesity and an increased incidence of moderate-severe disease
Cleveland Clinic Cancer Institute takes multi-faceted approach to increasing clinical trial access
Gene editing technology offers promise for treating multiple myeloma and other hematologic malignancies, as well as solid tumors
Study of 401,576 patients reveals differences in cancer burdens as well as overall survival
Enfortumab plus pembrolizumab reduced risk of death by 53% compared with platinum-based chemotherapy