Testicular sperm extraction in a patient with metachronous bilateral testicular cancer

A new indication for testicular tissue cryopreservation is demonstrated in a patient with metachronous bilateral testicular tumours and azoospermia. A t the age of 18 (1982) the patient underwent left orchidectomy and radical retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy for a testicular teratoma (pT1N0M0). Semen samples were not cryopreserved because of absence of motile spermatozoa aft er thawing. Seventeen years after the primary testicular cancer, a seminoma of the contralateral right testis was diagnosed (pT1N0M0). Since the patie nt was azoospermic, no semen samples could be cryopreserved. However, sperm atozoa were detected in testicular biopsy material of the right testis and were cryopreserved for ICSI. Since all spermatozoa were dead after thawing, testicular sperm extraction (TESE) was performed in the remaining tissue s amples at the time of ICSI treatment. Only spermatids could be extracted fr om frozen-thawed samples due to the inhomogeneous distribution of spermatog enic activity in the testicular tissue. Although one oocyte was fertilized with these spermatids, a clinical pregnancy was not achieved. Despite the d isappointing results of ICSI in the couple presented here, this case report demonstrates that cryopreservation of testicular tissue and TESE should be considered in patients with bilateral testicular tumours and azoospermia, if frozen semen samples are not available.