Chemotherapy fights cancer by attacking rapidly dividing cancer cells, but sometimes it mistakenly targets other cells that behave similarly but do things like grow hair and make sperm.

As a result, some men become infertile. The risk varies based on the type of cancer and method of treatment. Some men choose to freeze their sperm before starting treatment — just in case. Unfortunately, not all men have that option.

Some men are not informed about the risks to their fertility before it’s too late. And boys who haven’t reached puberty are unable to freeze their sperm because their bodies can’t yet make any. For others, sperm banking is too expensive. According to the Livestrong Foundation, freezing a sperm sample can cost between $1,000 and $1,500, and it isn’t typically covered by insurance.

At the University of Texas at San Antonio, a lab led by assistant biology professor Brian Hermann has identified a drug that — if it proves successful in human study — could prevent infertility in men after they have undergone chemotherapy.

Hermann was doing postdoctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh when he discovered a link between a drug commonly used to fight infections and increased sperm production after chemotherapy.

When Hermann started his own lab at UTSA in 2011, he tried to replicate what he saw in his first experiment in mice, and he succeeded. In his second study, recently published in the journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology, Hermann figured out why this happens.

“If a patient gets chemotherapy and they become infertile, there are still some germ cells in the testicles that can make sperm, but there just aren’t enough of them to make enough sperm to be fertile,” Hermann said. “What this drug can do is make more of those cells so that more sperm can be produced.”

The drug is called Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factor, or G-CSF, and it fights infections by telling the body to make more white blood cells. It’s already FDA approved and widely used, which means the data that could prove whether the drug will prevent infertility in men already exists. It just needs to be gathered and analyzed.

“We have the ability to look at human populations who have already been treated,” Hermann said. “If we could correlate receiving that drug with their fertility, then we could perhaps, without doing any more clinical experiments, know whether this is effective in humans.”

Until now, strategies to reverse or prevent infertility have been experimental and risky. Young boys who are not yet making sperm can have tissue removed from the testicles before therapy, have it frozen for a time and then put back after treatment. According to the Livestrong Foundation, this method has not yet led to the birth of a live baby.

“The really exciting thing about this G-CSF treatment is that you could potentially obviate the need to do those risky surgical retrieval of testicular tissue and transplantation type approaches,” Hermann said.

Dr. Terri Woodward, an assistant professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, called Hermann’s finding “awesome.”

“So many men say, ‘Oh wow, I didn’t realize the impact my treatment would have on my fertility. I wish someone had talked to me,’” Woodward said. “So many men don’t even get that conversation.”

A 2002 study by MD Anderson surveyed men diagnosed with cancer in the previous two years about the information they were given regarding their fertility. Only 60 percent of the men recalled being told that infertility could be a side effect of their cancer treatment.

The same study said lack of information was the most common reason men gave for passing on the opportunity to freeze sperm.

The Livestrong Foundation offers an online training course for health care professionals that teaches them how to talk to patients about their fertility options.

“Unmet needs about reproductive options are associated with increased distress levels in cancer survivors,” said Aditi Narayan, the foundation’s program manager. “Research shows that infertility affects a cancer survivor’s long-term quality of life by causing unresolved grief and depression.”

The foundation contracts with over 560 clinics across the country to provide discounted fertility preservation services to men and women with cancer.

Though Hermann is optimistic about the drug’s potential, he’s not putting all of his eggs — er, sperm — in one basket. If the drug doesn’t produce the same results in humans as it has in mice, he hopes his other work in the lab will lead to more effective diagnostic and treatment options for men with cancer.

His lab is working on understanding more about stem cells in the testes — how they work, how they can be used and even what they look like.

“Ultimately, in my heart of hearts, I’m a biologist, and I just want to understand how things work,” Hermann said.

bmartin@express-news.net

Twitter: @beedotmartin