Gonadal damage from chemotherapy and radiotherapy

Treatment with cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy is associated with significant gonadal damage in men and women. In particular, the treatment of hematologic malignancies and testicular cancer leads to gonadal dysfunction in a significant proportion of patients. Testicular and ovarian damage from chemotherapy is drug-specific and dose-dependent, and, in addition, ovarian dysfunction is clearly age-dependent Gonadal damage from radiotherapy is related to the schedule and total dose of irradiation received. Despite encouraging results in animal models, strategies aimed at reducing long-term gonadal dysfunction following treatment in humans have been disappointing, but several new methods appear promising.