Nine-year-old Dylan Hanlon smiles while taking a break from game-playing on his portable computer at home in Holiday, Fla. Dylan is currently undergoing chemotherapy for Ewing’s sarcoma. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON – The treatment beating back 9-year-old Dylan Hanlon’s cancer may also be destroying his chances of fathering his own children when he grows up.
Upset that doctors didn’t make that risk clear, his mother, Christine, tracked down an experiment that just might salvage Dylan’s future fertility. Between chemo sessions, the pair flew hundreds of miles from their Florida home to try it.
Many of the cancer treatments that can save patients’ lives also may cost their ability to have babies later in life. Young adults have options – bank some sperm, freeze embryos or eggs. Children diagnosed before puberty don’t.