The majority of the former cancer patients who were suffering from hormone deficiency were also infertile because the cancer treatment had impaired their sperm production. During and after puberty, young men can provide sperm samples that are frozen and saved, but before puberty, boys do not produce sperm. The only option then is to remove testicular tissue to be preserved for the future.

Today it is not possible to extract sperm from such tissue, but this has been achieved in animal experiments and could become possible in humans in the future. However, removing testicular tissue involves a separate operation before the actual cancer treatment - a further strain for the young cancer patient.

The research group has produced a genetic marker that makes it possible, by means of a simple blood test, to identify which patients are at highest risk of losing their sperm production entirely and should therefore be offered the operation.

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