Although she became infertile as a result of the chemotherapy, re-implantation of her ovarian tissue re-started ovulation 5 months later; she became pregnant 11 months after re-transplantation by natural fertilization. Details of the procedure appear in a research article published online by THE LANCET.

The mother gave birth to a healthy baby girl weighing 3?·72 kg delivered at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium, at 1905 H local time on Thursday 23 September 2004.

This is the first case of a human livebirth after success of a process called orthotopic autotransplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue, in a patient from whom tissue was collected and cryopreserved (frozen) before chemotherapy was initiated.

Earlier this year (9 March 2004) THE LANCET reported how US investigators had done a similar procedure in a 30-year-old woman who became infertile after chemotherapy for breast cancer; however this earlier report involved in-vitro fertilization and re-implantation of a 4-cell embryo which did not result in pregnancy.

Lead investigator Jacques Donnez (Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium) comments: "Our findings open new perspectives for young cancer patients facing premature ovarian failure. Ovarian tissue cryopreservation should be an option offered to all young women diagnosed with cancer, in conjunction with other existing options for fertility preservation, such as immature oocyte retrieval, in-vitro maturation of oocytes, oocyte vitrification, or embryo cryopreservation."

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Carmen L. Lewis, M.D., M.P.H., from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues surveyed 605 women aged 40 to 69 years in ten general internal medicine practices in North Carolina in 2000. The survey was designed to determine each woman's breast cancer risk and then to assess eligibility for chemoprevention (using tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer). The researchers determined the women's five-year breast cancer risk based on age, ethnicity, number of first-degree relatives with breast cancer, age at first menstruation, age at first live birth, number of breast biopsies, and presence of atypical hyperplasia (abnormal cells that may be indicative of cancer) in a biopsy specimen. Women with an estimated five-year breast cancer risk of at least 1.66 percent were defined as having an increased breast cancer risk. To determine the possible risks of taking tamoxifen, the women were questioned about their medical history; specifically, whether their physicians had told them they had high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, blood clots in the legs, or blood clots in the lungs.

The researchers found that among white women, nine percent in their 40s, 24 percent in their 50s, and 53.4 percent in their 60s had a five-year estimated breast cancer risk of 1.66 percent or greater. Among black women, 2.9 percent in their 40s, 7.1 percent in their 50s, and 13 percent in their 60s had a similar risk. When the possible side effects of tamoxifen were considered in white women, ten percent or fewer in all age groups were judged to be potentially appropriate for chemoprevention using tamoxifen. In women identified as at an increased risk for breast cancer, the maximum proportion of breast cancers that would be prevented was 6 to 8.3 percent, according to the researchers' calculations.

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