How do cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation impact a patient’s fertility?

This question drove the creation of the Oncofertility Consortium — a multidisciplinary community examining how to integrate fertility preservation conversations with physicians and families amid a devastating disease diagnosis.

The Oncofertility Consortium was established in 2007 by Dr. Teresa Woodruff, then a professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University. The NIH Roadmap funding for the Consortium included Northwestern University, Oregon Health & Science University, University of California in San Diego, University of Missouri, and University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Kyle Orwig, a fertility preservation researcher at Magee- Womens Research Institute (MWRI), explains that when the Consortium was created in the early 2000s, a cancer diagnosis was considered dire, and conversations about quality of life after cancer were not common.

“In those early days, nobody talked about fertility in the context of the cancer diagnosis,” Dr. Orwig says. “That just wasn’t done.”

Dr. Woodruff coined the term “oncofertility” in 2006 to indicate that the field is not strictly fertility nor oncology, but in fact an emerging multidisciplinary social science. 

“It’s a new discipline that recognizes the fact that we have to reach across different areas of expertise to provide the best quality of care for our patients. And neither one of those disciplines individually would be able to do that,” Dr. Orwig says. “We had to hold hands and do it together.”

For the first decade of the Oncofertility Consortium’s existence, more than 200 attendees from around
the world gathered in Chicago for the annual conference, which included physicians, researchers, social scientists, psychologists, and patient navigators.

To Dr. Orwig, this meeting unified a group of people that might not have otherwise gathered. “Over
the years, the conference has helped foster an international community of people with a common interest in ensuring the highest quality of life for cancer survivors, including the possibility of having children. And so, we start to work together around that issue,” he says. 

Periodically, Dr. Woodruff would suggest that Dr. Orwig host the next Oncofertility Conference in Pittsburgh. The disruption of COVID-19 in 2020 and the transition of Dr. Woodruff and the Oncofertility Consortium from Northwestern University to Michigan State University, set the stage for a change of venue. Dr. Orwig and his team at MWRI were ready to take on the challenge.

“Teresa is the figurehead and transcendent leader of the Oncofertility Consortium. She helped create the field where I do my life’s work,” Dr. Orwig says. “We were honored to help carry the leadership torch and host the Oncofertility community here in Pittsburgh.”

After seeking institutional support from MWRI, and with Dr. Woodruff’s endorsement, Dr. Orwig started to plan and raise funds to hold the conference in Pittsburgh. Though the planning occurred amidst changing COVID-19 restrictions, the team committed to holding the Oncofertility Conference in-person at a local conference center to accommodate the number of attendees, maintain the academic style of the gathering, and, most importantly, bring together a close-knit community of Oncofertility experts after a 2-year hiatus.

The international Oncofertility community appeared ready to emerge from the COVID-19 bubble, as the final attendance for the May 2022 event in Pittsburgh was on par with past events. Dr. Orwig and his wife Jennifer even hosted the conference attendees at their home to continue networking and collaborating over wood-fired pizza.

“We were really pleased to get that kind of attendance considering the new location, COVID, everything, and it went great,” Dr. Orwig says.

He hopes the international attendance continues to grow, as there are lessons in fertility preservation that can be gleaned from work taking place around the world. Dr. Orwig adds that the community created by the Oncofertility Consortium has a common “passion and compassion” for patients facing these challenges, which motivates members to openly share their protocols and experiences to accelerate the pace of collective learning and improve the quality and accessibility of patient care.

“Collectively, we can learn how best to make a discipline that really nobody knows about available and accessible to anybody who might need it,” he says.

Planning for the 15th Annual Conference of the Oncofertility Consortium in Pittsburgh is already under way, with the continued commitment to unite to serve patients during a critical moment of their lives.

“We’re providing hope for patients at a time in their life when they’re not having a lot of hopeful discussions,” Dr. Orwig says. “We help patients look beyond a diagnosis of cancer to a healthy and productive life after cure... that is hope.”

To learn more about the 2023 Oncofertility Consortium Conference, visit: oncofertility.msu.edu