Hypogonadotrophism fails to prevent severe testicular damage induced by total body irradiation in a patient with beta-thalassaemia major and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Radiation and chemotherapeutic drugs for cancer produce prolonged and often irreversible gonadal damage. To determine whether total body irradiation ( TBI)induced gonadal damage can be prevented by suppression of pituitary gon adotrophin levels, we studied a patient with transfusion dependent homozygo us beta-thalassaemia and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) who underwent one-antigen mismatched related bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Our data showed that despite having hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism (HH) prior to MIT , the patient developed primary testicular failure following the procedure, indicating that hypogonadotrophism failed to offer protection against TBI- induced testicular damage in this patient. Although this is an interesting case report, no firm conclusions can be drawn from a single patient.