B Acad Nat Med Paris
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The toxicity of cancer therapies can affect all organs and tissues. Some treatments damage spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), with a risk of infertility. ⋯ However, thawed frozen prepubertal testicular tissue must undergo a maturation process to restore sperm production. This process, currently being studied in animal models, can be achieved by in vivo transplantation of SSCs into seminiferous tubules or by testicular grafting, possibly following in vitro maturation.
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Two major changes in end-of-life management have occured in recent decades: first, because of the increase in life expectancy and the resulting aging of the population, most deaths now involve old or very old people; second, more than two-thirds of deaths occur in a hospital or an institution. Our fellow citizens are afraid of suffering and death. They wish for a peaceful death, as rapid as possible and, in recent surveys, say they favour euthanasia. ⋯ Palliative care ensures dignity in death, without anxiety of suffering, and is expanding rapidly in France. Léonetti's law of 22 April 2005 ensures the protection of the weakest, who should never be considered unworthy of life, yet is poorly known to the public and even to physicians. It now needs to be applied in practice.