A New York Medical College physician who restores or preserves fertility in female cancer patients after conducting tests concluded a possible link between the presence of breast cancer genes and infertility. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Kutluk Oktay, M. D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology and principal investigator on the study, in a paper published last week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, concluded that, mutations in the BRCA1 gene are associated with early loss of eggs and have also linked to early onset breast cancer.

Dr Oktay's team bought to trial about 126 women for ovarian stimulation with breast cancer for the purpose of fertility preservation by embryo or oocyte cryopreservation. During the conclusions it was found that among 82 women who met the inclusion criteria, 47 women (57 percent) had undergone BRCA testing, with 14 having a mutation in BRCA genes.

Dr Oktay concluded that if fertility drugs are not effective in motivating egg production in the ovaries of patients who carry BRCA1 mutations, there is a possibility of establishing a link between infertility and the risk of getting ovarian or breast cancer.