Is sperm banking of interest to patients with nongerm cell urological cancer before potentially fertility damaging treatments?

Purpose: We assessed the opinions of patients with nongerm cell urological cancer on sperm banking before undergoing surgical or nonsurgical therapy that could potentially endanger subsequent fertility. Materials and Methods: Between April 2007 and July 2008, 753 patients visited a urological office and were invited to complete a brief self-administered questionnaire to assess opinions on sperm banking before undergoing any eventual therapy potentially dangerous for male fertility. Logistic regression models tested the association between predictors (age, educational level, relationship status, previous fatherhood and benign disorder vs nongerm cell urological cancer) and patient wishes for sperm banking. Results: Median patient age was 65 years (mean 61.6, range 18 to 76). Overall 522 patients (69.3%) had nongerm cell urological cancer and only 242 (32.1%) were in favor of pretreatment sperm banking. On univariate analysis age (OR 0.961, p <0.001), a stable relationship (OR 0.486, p <0.001) and previous fatherhood (OR 0.390, p <0.001) were inversely associated with the wish for sperm banking, whereas having cancer and educational status were not significantly correlated. Multivariate analysis indicated that aging (OR 0.966, p = 0.001) and previous fatherhood (OR 0.587, p = 0.029) maintained inverse associations. Having urological cancer was positively (OR 1.494, p = 0.045) associated with the wish for sperm banking. Conclusions: In urological patients there is a low rate of willingness to bank sperm before any potential fertility damaging therapeutic approach. Having nongerm cell urrological cancer is an independent predictor that is positively associated with the wish to bank sperm. It is vitally important to provide comprehensive information about pretreatment sperm banking to young adults with nongerm cell urological cancer.