Poor semen quality from patients with malignancies does not rule out spermbanking

Cancer therapy can further impair the already poor semen quality in cancer patients. This study evaluated the prefreeze and postthaw semen quality bef ore treatment of patients with malignancies to examine the rationale for sp erm banking for these men. Records of nine patients with different malignan t tumors, who had been referred for sperm cryopreservation between 1982 and 1997, were reviewed and the results were compared with those of 50 normal healthy donors. Patients did not differ from donors in age, ejaculate volum e, or duration of sexual abstinence. The total motile sperm count (median a nd interquartile range) was significantly different between patients and do nors for prefreeze specimens (P = 0.026) and postthaw specimens (P = 0.008) . Also, the percent motility was significantly lower in the patients as com pared with the donors in prefreeze (P = 0.035) and postthaw specimens (P = 0.005). The percentage change in motility after thawing was also larger for patient samples (-54% versus -47%, P= 0.39). Other sperm motion characteri stics did not significantly differ between the two groups except for postth aw curvilinear velocity (P=0.01). This study concludes that fresh and froze n-thawed semen from patients with malignant tumors is poor in quality but i s still adequate for assisted reproductive techniques. As cancer therapy ma y further impair semen quality, patients should be offered the chance to ba nk sperm before undergoing cancer therapy.