Fertility After Cancer Predictor (FoRECAsT) Study

Project Details

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in reproductive aged women and many women are diagnosed before they have started or completed their families. Fortunately, survival from early breast cancer is almost at 90%. These women then need to deal with the consequences of treatment, such as potential infertility. Research has shown that fertility is a priority amongst these women and concerns about how cancer treatment impacts fertility may influence cancer treatment decisions. Thus, being able to provide women with information about how their fertility will be affected by treatment is important. This can help them to make decision around fertility preservation prior to starting adjuvant treatment.

Whilst there is general information about the potential effects of cancer treatments on fertility, there is no mechanism for obtaining personalised information about likely fertility outcomes. Current "calculators" consider cancer type and treatment, but do not consider this in the context of a woman’s fertility prior to cancer treatment. The aim of this study is to develop an online fertility predictor targeted at young women with breast cancer. This ‘calculator’ will take into consideration both intrinsic individual fertility-related characteristics, and the likely impact of cancer treatment to produce a risk of infertility. This tool will be available to women in order to inform decision making around breast cancer treatments.

Researchers

Funding

  • This study is funded by the Victorian Cancer Agency.

Research Group

The Psychosocial Health and Wellbeing Research (emPoWeR) Unit



Faculty Research Themes

Cancer

School Research Themes

Cancer in Medicine, Women's Health, Infectious Diseases and Immunity



Key Contact

For further information about this research, please contact the research group leader.

Department / Centre

Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health

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