Medical Breakthroughs

Renewed Hope

Groundbreaking advances in fertility treatment allow couples, who once held only dashed hopes, to have healthy babies when they are ready. One of those advancements is cryopreservation, or egg freezing.

Cryopreservation allows women to freeze their eggs and use them at a later date. According to Michael Allon, M.D., founder of Houston’s Center for Women’s Medicine, egg freezing can be utilized for women who are undergoing cancer treatment, those who, for whatever reason, aren’t ready to have children, or women who currently have no partner and would like to preserve their ability to have children in the future.

The patient begins by taking medication for egg stimulation and, when ready, her eggs are removed and frozen. Some patients, according to Allon, do not want to create extra embryos that may be discarded and wish to use all embryos. “In such cases, only a few eggs can be fertilized to produce embryos and the remaining eggs can be cryopreserved and used later if pregnancy is not achieved,” Allon says.

Allon says the procedure has resulted in more than 1,000 normal births worldwide. The process can be completed in 12 days from the time of egg stimulation to extraction and freezing.

“For women who have cancer, we want to perform the process prior to any chemotherapy, which may lead to poor ovarian response and poor pregnancy rates,” said Allon.

It is widely recognized that women over age 35 have a greater risk of genetic abnormalities during pregnancy. Egg freezing is a viable option for those women who would like to delay motherhood while pursuing their career, or as they search for the right partner without the pressure of a ticking biological clock.

While births achieved through cryopreservation amount to about nine babies per 100 eggs, Allon says the odds are expected to increase as the technique is refined. Success also depends on the age of the donor.

—Allison Stephan

Tuberculosis Susceptibility Examined

While the World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world’s population is infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB), researchers at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston have identified a genetic deviation that renders certain people incapable of fighting the dangerous TB bacteria.

In healthy people, a protein called TLR identifies the TB bacteria and mounts an immune response to kill it. New research published in the Public Library of Science ONE (PLoS-ONE) shows that patients with active TB have variations of this protein that fail to defend against the disease.

“This discovery will help us study more effective ways to prevent and treat TB,” said Dr. James Musser, co-director of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and the study’s principal investigator. “In addition, it may also open a new method for the study of human susceptibility to other infectious diseases beyond just TB.”

BMI And Cancer

Body Mass Index (BMI), the measure of a person’s fat based on their height and weight, may be an effective prognostic tool for specific types of breast cancer, according to research at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, reports that women with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) and inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) with high BMIs had worse prognosis than women with the disease whose BMIs were in the healthy range.

A BMI score of less than 18.5 indicates that a person is underweight and a score of 18.5 to 24.9 indicates a “normal” or “healthy” range. A person is overweight if the score is 25 to 29.9. Any score above 30 is considered obese.

Before now, there were few epidemiological or retrospective studies suggesting a correlation between weight gain, obesity and risk of developing breast cancer; even fewer had addressed the prognostic value of obesity, said Massimo Cristofanilli, M.D., the study’s senior author.

Researchers reviewed 606 patients: 495 (82 percent) with LABC and 111 (18 percent) with non-metastatic IBC. All were enrolled in clinical protocols at M.D. Anderson between 1974 and 2000. In calculating BMI, 208 (34 percent) of the patients were normal or underweight, 194 (32 percent) were overweight and 204 (34 percent) were obese.

For the entire group, the median overall survival was 8.6 years and recurrence-free survival was 5.8 years. Both statistics were significantly worse for overweight and obese patients compared to those of normal weight or underweight.



Renewed Hope Groundbreaking advances in fertility treatment allow couples, who once held only dashed hopes, to have healthy babies when they are ready. One of those advancements is cryopreservation, or egg freezing. Cryopreservation allows women to freeze their eggs and use them at a later date. According to Michael Allon, M.D., founder of Houston’s Center for Women’s Medicine, egg freezing can be utilized for women who are undergoing cancer treatment, those who, for whatever reason, aren’t ready to have children, or women who currently have no partner and would like to preserve their ability to have children in the future. The patient begins by taking medication for egg stimulation and, when ready, her eggs are removed and frozen. Some patients, according to Allon, do not want to create extra embryos that may be discarded and wish to use all embryos. “In such cases, only a few eggs can be fertilized to produce embryos and the remaining eggs can be cryopreserved and used later if pregnancy is not achieved,” Allon says. Allon says the procedure has resulted in more than 1,000 normal births worldwide. The process can be completed in 12 days from the time of egg stimulation to extraction and freezing. “For women who have cancer, we want to perform the process prior to any chemotherapy, which may lead to poor ovarian response and poor pregnancy rates,” said Allon. It is widely recognized that women over age 35 have a greater risk of genetic abnormalities during pregnancy. Egg freezing is a viable option for those women who would like to delay motherhood while pursuing their career, or as they search for the right partner without the pressure of a ticking biological clock. While births achieved through cryopreservation amount to about nine babies per 100 eggs, Allon says the odds are expected to increase as the technique is refined. Success also depends on the age of the donor. —Allison Stephan Tuberculosis Susceptibility Examined While the World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world’s population is infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB), researchers at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston have identified a genetic deviation that renders certain people incapable of fighting the dangerous TB bacteria. In healthy people, a protein called TLR identifies the TB bacteria and mounts an immune response to kill it. New research published in the Public Library of Science ONE (PLoS-ONE) shows that patients with active TB have variations of this protein that fail to defend against the disease. “This discovery will help us study more effective ways to prevent and treat TB,” said Dr. James Musser, co-director of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and the study’s principal investigator. “In addition, it may also open a new method for the study of human susceptibility to other infectious diseases beyond just TB.” BMI And Cancer Body Mass Index (BMI), the measure of a person’s fat based on their height and weight, may be an effective prognostic tool for specific types of breast cancer, according to research at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, reports that women with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) and inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) with high BMIs had worse prognosis than women with the disease whose BMIs were in the healthy range. A BMI score of less than 18.5 indicates that a person is underweight and a score of 18.5 to 24.9 indicates a “normal” or “healthy” range. A person is overweight if the score is 25 to 29.9. Any score above 30 is considered obese. Before now, there were few epidemiological or retrospective studies suggesting a correlation between weight gain, obesity and risk of developing breast cancer; even fewer had addressed the prognostic value of obesity, said Massimo Cristofanilli, M.D., the study’s senior author. Researchers reviewed 606 patients: 495 (82 percent) with LABC and 111 (18 percent) with non-metastatic IBC. All were enrolled in clinical protocols at M.D. Anderson between 1974 and 2000. In calculating BMI, 208 (34 percent) of the patients were normal or underweight, 194 (32 percent) were overweight and 204 (34 percent) were obese. For the entire group, the median overall survival was 8.6 years and recurrence-free survival was 5.8 years. Both statistics were significantly worse for overweight and obese patients compared to those of normal weight or underweight.