New chemo drug gentler on fertility, tougher on cancer

A new gentler chemotherapy drug in the form of nanoparticles has been designed by Northwestern Medicine scientists to be less toxic to a young woman's fertility but extra tough on cancer. This is the first cancer drug tested while in development for its effect on fertility using a novel in vitro test.

The scientists designed a quick new in vitro test that predicts the toxicity of a chemotherapy drug to fertility and can be easily used to test other cancer drugs in development as well as existing ones. Currently the testing of cancer drugs for fertility toxicity is a time and resource intensive process.

"Our overall goal is to create smart drugs that kill the cancer but don't cause sterility in young women," said Teresa Woodruff, a co-principal investigator of the study and chief of fertility preservation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The paper was published in the journal PLOS ONE.