Before chemotherapy the median AMH level was 0.4 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL). After cancer treatment the AMH level fell rapidly, becoming undetectable (below 0.16 ng/mL) in 68 percent of the women after one cycle of chemotherapy, the authors reported. By one-year follow-up, 11 women withdrew from the study, mostly because of cancer recurrence, Anderson said. Menstrual records were available for 39 women at one year and for 29 women at two years.

A low AMH measurement before treatment correlated well with amenorrhea, or absence of menstruation, after treatment. Women whose AMH before treatment was low (below 0.4 ng/mL) were 16 times likelier to have stopped menstruating after chemotherapy than women with a high pretreatment AMH value, Anderson said. The odds of losing ovarian function remained higher even after statistical analysis controlled for increasing age, which tends to lower AMH levels. Women whose AMH before chemotherapy exceeded 0.92 ng/mL were reportedly almost five times more likely to continue menstruating after treatment.

"Our data suggest that the AMH test, taken before cancer treatment, can help individualize a woman's infertility risk after chemotherapy for breast cancer," Anderson said.

He added that results of this study, which was funded by the U.K. Medical Research Council, are likely to apply to other types of cancer as well.

Source: University of Edinburgh