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Mesothelioma: A Killer
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Infertile Woman Has Baby After Transplant
By CONSTANT BRAND
Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- A woman who gave birth after a pioneering ovarian tissue transplant snuggled her day-old baby girl Friday and called her "a big miracle."
Ouarda Touirat, who was infertile after she underwent chemotherapy due to Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1997, gave birth Thursday night following the ground-breaking procedure that doctors say could one day allow women to delay motherhood beyond menopause.
"I am very happy, it's what I always wanted," said Touirat, who presented her healthy 8-pound, 3-ounce baby, Tamara, at a news conference at Brussels' Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc hospital.
"I was crying at first, it's a dream ... a big miracle," said the 32-year old mother.
Dr. Jaques Donnez cut ovarian tissue from Touirat before she underwent chemotherapy, then froze it in liquid nitrogen. Five years after she was cleared of cancer, the tissue was grafted back onto her fallopian tubes, allowing for a natural pregnancy.
"This is the first time that the tissue was cryo-preserved, removed before chemotherapy and was successfully implanted," said Donnez, head of the Department of Gynecology and Andrology at the hospital. "It is a big message of hope for all women with cancer who have to go and have to have chemotherapy."
News of the procedure was published in the British medical journal The Lancet on Friday.
"When I proposed the ovarian graft to the patient, we had no idea it was working or not, we just ... (had) experimental studies in animals," Donnez said.
He said 146 women were undergoing the same procedure, "but Mrs. Touirat was one of the first in 1997 who has undergone ... the cryopreservation."
"Several lines of evidence lend support to our assertion that the origin of the pregnancy was the autotransplanted ... tissue," the researchers wrote in the journal.
Experts in the field were cautious about the report, however, saying there was a small chance the baby came from existing ovaries rather than the transplanted tissue.
Donnez said doctors from Catholic University in Louvain, Belgium, made a strong case that the birth resulted from the transplant.
"It cannot be proved with 100 percent certainty (that the pregnancy came from the graft) because ovulation from the transplant was calculated from temperature, but was not confirmed," said Dr. Kutluk Oktay, an expert who was not involved with the operation but has conducted much of the key research in the field.
Even though the woman's remaining ovarian tissue stopped working after the cancer treatment, it recovered and she ovulated three years later, which indicates it's possible that the native ovaries could have ovulated again to produce the baby, Oktay said.
Oktay, a reproductive endocrinologist from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said the result would have been definitive if the researchers had tracked the transplanted tissue on a daily basis to verify that the follicle they saw early in the process released an egg and that this was the egg that was fertilized.
Alternatively, if the egg had been harvested from the transplanted tissue and fertilized in a lab before being implanted in the womb, as in normal fertility treatment, the technique would be proven, he said.
Donnez was optimistic the procedure would be made easier in the years ahead thanks to advances, meaning more women could be given the choice of having a baby.
He said the treatment was not very expensive, adding it was "much less expensive than in-vitro fertilization."
Donnez said health authorities should make it "a medical legal obligation" to offer women who have to undergo chemotherapy the option for fertility preservation.
"This is the way to go," Donnez said. "Because of the progress ... made by medicine, more and more women are survivors of cancer."
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Children also need flu shots, US health officials say
Last Updated: 2004-09-23 14:01:05 -0400 (Reuters Health)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pointing to last year's early and unusually harsh influenza season, U.S. health officials stressed on Thursday the importance of flu shots for children as well as adults.
The vaccine shortages of recent flu seasons should not be a problem this year, and 100 million doses of vaccine will be available by the middle of November, the officials said.
That still falls far short of the 185 million people who are supposed to get the vaccine, said flu expert Dr. Keiji Fukuda of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But less than half of those who should get the vaccine actually do. "A lot of people simply don't want to get the vaccine or don't get vaccinated because of some obstacle," Fukuda told a news conference.
The results are deadly. Every year, an average 36,000 Americans die of influenza and updated figures show that 200,000 a year end up in the hospital with serious flu complications such as pneumonia.
"It is a disease that we have the means to prevent," said Dr. Carol Baker of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The CDC said it was officially notified that 152 children died last season from influenza or its complications. "The vast majority of these children were not adequately vaccinated against flu," the CDC said in a statement.
"Almost half of the children had an underlying medical condition, but 40 percent were previously healthy."
The only way to protect babies under the age of 6 months, who are too young to be vaccinated, is for all those around them to get vaccinated, Baker said. Vaccinated pregnant women pass the immunity to their babies.
Baker said parents should make appointments now for their children to get flu vaccines. Those under 9 need two doses, at least a month apart, so they should start soon, she said.
A special appeal went out to healthcare workers, most of whom do not get the vaccine even though they are supposed to. Only 46 percent of healthcare workers, such as doctors and nurses, get an annual flu vaccine.
The flu vaccine is reformulated every year to match strains known to be circulating. Last year it did not match the most common flu strains very closely but the CDC said it was still 50 percent effective, meaning it prevented half the expected number of deaths and hospitalizations.
Pregnant women, children age 6 to 23 months, people over 50 and people with chronic diseases should get the flu vaccine, as are those who come in contact with the very young, old and sick.
The American Lung Association said it had launched an online flu vaccine finder at http://www.lungusa.org that allows people to type in their zip code to find out where they can go to get a flu shot.
SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, September 24, 2004.
Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
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