(Nature) – Testicle sample removed from a ten-year-old before chemotherapy and frozen proves viable 16 years later.

A cutting-edge operation has restored a man’s ability to make sperm by transplanting tissue samples that were removed from one of his testicles and frozen 16 years earlier, when he was still a boy. Scientists say that the remarkable achievement could mark the beginning of a new wave of fertility treatments.

The samples were taken shortly before the boy received chemotherapy treatments that put his fertility at risk. “This is an important breakthrough,” says Rod Mitchell, a paediatric endocrinologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK, who was not involved in the work. “This offers hope for prepubertal boys who are facing treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, that can affect their future fertility.” (Read More)