Fertility Preservation in Children With Solid Tumors: Detection of Residual Disease by a Sensitive Method

In prepubertal patients, cryopreservation of ovarian or testicular tissue is currently the only available method for fertility preservation prior to gonadotoxic cancer treatments. However, this approach carries the risk of reintroducing malignant cells upon autotransplantation, particularly in cases of metastatic cancers such as neuroblastoma and Ewing sarcoma. Therefore, it is crucial to employ highly sensitive techniques to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) in preserved gonadal tissues. This study aims to identify the most effective detection method by comparing the sensitivity and specificity of reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) in identifying MRD of neuroblastoma and Ewing sarcoma in ovarian and testicular tissues from patients treated for these malignancies during infancy.