A pilot study conducted by INRS and McGill researchers highlights the effect of chemotherapy on male fertility before and after puberty.

"It is often thought that cancer treatments for prepubescent boys will have no effect on their fertility because their testicles would be "dormant". But in fact, the prepubertal testis are not immune to chemotherapy that affects dividing cells and it is now well recognized that there can be long-term effects," explains Géraldine Delbès, a professor at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Laval.