Can artificial ovaries help cancer patients get pregnant?

Scientists have finally succeeded in creating an "artificial ovary" that could mature eggs outside of the body. This news could bring great hope for women whose fertility is threatened due to chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments for cancer. This bit of news fascinated me so much today that I just had to share it with you all! Aren't artificial ovaries something that seems to come out of a science fiction novel?

Particularly when we take into account that the artificial ovary, which scientists refer to as a "structure" is not placed into the body, but could be used to mature human eggs in a lab! A research team from Brown University and Woman & Infants Hospital (in the United States) created shapes like honeycombs, and inserted cells from human egg into the cavities. While the research is still ongoing, one thing is certain this new discovery can already be called a breakthrough. In the past, scientist had attempted to mature eggs in petri dishes, but failed. This is the first time that anything similar has successfully done outside of the human body.

Research team member professor Sandra Carson from Brown university explained: "An ovary is composed of three main cell types, and this is the first time that anyone has created a 3-D tissue structure with triple cell line. This is really very, very new and is the first success in using 3-D tissue engineering principles." If the new technology continues to be developed successfully, it could truly offer great hope to many cancer patients. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are a great threat to fertility. Male cancer patients have had the option to freeze their sperm for future reproductive purposes for ages, but women have not been that lucky. Using an egg donor has been the only option for many women who have undergone cancer treatment, if they want to become pregnant themselves. With the help of this new artificial ovary, egg cells could be harvested before cancer treatment commences, to be matured at a later date and help women make their wishes to become mothers come true. Who knows, perhaps fertility clinics will start offering this service soon enough!