- Academic Editor
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Background: One main issue to be considered in young patients diagnosed
with early breast cancer (BC) is the impact of oncological treatments on
fertility and future chances of conception. Current guidelines recommend a
comprehensive addressing of oncofertility as part of the management of
premenopausal BC patients, including counselling on available assisted
reproduction technologies and fertility preservation (FP) strategies. The
COVID-19 pandemic represented a potential hurdle to the integration of these
procedures into clinical practice. This study aims to describe the time-related
evolution in addressing oncofertility issues. Methods: This
retrospective mono-institutional observational study considered 206 patients who
received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) or adjuvant
endocrine therapy (ET), diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 40 or younger
in the years 2014–2015 and 2020–2021. Time-related evolution in addressing
oncofertility during oncological consultations and adoption of a fertility or
ovarian function preservation (OFP) method were analyzed comparing the two
different timeframes. Results: Comparing the two cohorts 2014–2015 and
2020–2021, we found a significant difference in the presence of fertility
discussion records (37.4% vs 57.9%, p