Testicular Tissue Cryopreservation in Children

December 4, 2025 updated by: Candace F. Granberg, M.D., Mayo Clinic

Testicular Tissue Cryopreservation for Fertility Preservation in Males Facing Fertility Threatening Diagnoses or Treatment Regimens

This protocol is being designed to offer testicular tissue cryopreservation to male pediatric patients (0-17 years of age) with fertility threatening medical diagnoses or facing surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy that may cause loss of reproductive potential.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Testicular tissue cryopreservation is currently considered experimental but offers the only opportunity for fertility preservation in pre-pubescent boys faced with a fertility threatening diagnosis or treatment plan.

After completion of study intervention, patients are followed up at 1-week post-surgery and then yearly thereafter.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

200

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Minnesota
      • Rochester, Minnesota, United States, 55905
        • Recruiting
        • Mayo Clinic in Rochester
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Candace F. Granberg, MD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

1 second to 17 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria: (All inclusion criteria must be met.)

  • Be male 0-17 years of age

  • Meet at least one of the following four conditions:

    • Be scheduled to undergo surgery, chemotherapy, drug treatment and/or radiation for the treatment or prevention of a medical condition or malignancy with risk of causing permanent and complete loss of subsequent testicular function. Risk categories based on treatment regimens are indicated below. Investigators will utilize three sources to calculate risk: 1. "Fertile Hope - Risks of Azoospermia" brochure that details typical agents and treatment regimens in each risk category, 2. The Summed Alkylating Agent dose score (Green et al., 2009) or 3. The Cyclophosphamide Equivalent Dose method (Green et al., 2014). Because of the complexity of many treatment regimens, patient risk categorization will be at the discretion of the investigators.

      • High Risk

        • >= 80% risk of prolonged azoospermia, Fertile Hope Brochure
        • Summed alkylating agent dose score >= 3
        • Cyclophosphamide equivalent dose >= 7,500mg/m^2
      • Intermediate risk (21-79% risk of prolonged azoospermia, Fertile Hope)
      • Low Risk ( =< 20% risk of prolonged azoospermia, Fertile Hope)
      • Eligibility is limited to patients in the High risk category and/or intermediate risk after discussion with pediatric oncology, fertility preservation team, and the patient/family
    • Or, have a medical condition or malignancy that requires removal of all or part of one or both testicles
    • Or, have a medical condition (genetic or autoimmune) that results in decline in fertility (e.g. Klinefelter syndrome)
    • Or, have a newly diagnosed or recurrent disease affecting fertility. Those who were not enrolled at the time of initial diagnosis (i.e. patients with recurrent disease) are eligible if they have not previous received therapy that is viewed as likely to result in complete and permanent loss of testicular function
  • Have two testicles if undergoing elective removal of a testicle for fertility preservation only. Note: removal of both testicles will limit fertility preservation options. Or have 1 testicle but limited potential for future fertility due to underlying condition, malignancy, prior surgery or previous torsion and no other fertility preservation methods are available except for testicular tissue cryopreservation
  • Sign an approved informed consent and authorization permitting the release of personal health information. The patient and/or the patient's legally authorized guardian must acknowledge in writing that consent for specimen collection has been obtained, in accordance with institutional policies approved by the United States (U.S.) Department of Health and Human Services
  • Consent for serum screening tests for infectious diseases to be performed at the time of testicular tissue harvesting. The immediate testing will include but not be limited to testing for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
  • Undergo a full history and physical examination and obtain standard pre-operative clearance (based on the most recent American College of Cardiology/ American Heart Association [ACC/AHA] Guideline for Perioperative Cardiovascular Evaluation for Noncardiac Surgery) as determined by their primary surgeon
  • Note: In cases of torsion of testicles or other medical conditions that result in impairment of testicular function, patients can be consented and included in the study, if during the testicular surgery the provider finds that the patient still has viable tissue that can be cryopreserved.

Exclusion Criteria: (Any exclusion criteria will disqualify.)

  • Diagnosed with psychological, psychiatric, or other conditions which prevent giving fully informed consent.
  • Diagnosed with an underlying medical condition that significantly increases their risk of complications from anesthesia and surgery.
  • Previous recipients of gonadotoxic chemotherapy or radiation therapy thought to have resulted in impairment of testicular function.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Testicular tissue
Children faced with a fertility threatening diagnosis or treatment plan will be offered testicular tissue cryopreservation, particularly if pre-pubescent and without other options to preserve fertility.
Procedure: Testicular tissue cryopreservation
Testicular tissue will be removed

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Number of pregnancies and live births after transplantation of cryopreserved testicular tissue
Time Frame: 10-20 years
10-20 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Mayo Clinic

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Candace F. Granberg, MD, Mayo Clinic in Rochester

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 16, 2016

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2030

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2030

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 16, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 16, 2016

First Posted (Estimated)

August 19, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 8, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 4, 2025

Last Verified

December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 15-004891
  • NCI-2022-10961 (Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trials Reporting Program))

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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