Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: To analyse the semen quality in patients with newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin lymphoma before starting the treatment.

Materials and methods: We evaluated semen quality in 29 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who underwent sperm banking in our clinic over a 9-year period. Semen samples were collected by masturbation after 2–7 days of sexual abstinence. Age at banking, semen volume, sperm concentration, and total and progressive sperm motility were recorded. Semen parameters were compared to established World Health Organisation (WHO) reference values (WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen, Fifth Edition, 2010).

Results: The median age of the patients was 28 years (range 18–42); median semen volume was 2.0 ml (range 0.6–3.5); median sperm concentration was 52×10⁶ per ml (range 1.0–269); median total and progressive sperm motility were 31 (range 0–83) and 27% (range 0–50) respectively. According to the reference values of the WHO 6 of 29 patients (20.7%) in this series had a semen quality within the normal range, and 23 of 29 patients (79.3%) had abnormal semen quality. 17 patients (58.6%) had single damage (all patients in this group had asthenozoospermia) and six patients (20.7%) had combined damages (oligoasthenozoospermia).

Conclusion: Patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma have an increased risk for inadequate semen quality before any treatment. In our study, 79.3% of these men had abnormal semen quality according to the WHO reference intervals for values of semen parameters. Generally, patients with newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin lymphoma need counselling about their reproductive function and semen cryopreservation should be considered before undergoing gonadotoxic treatment.