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tajzadeh S, Ghanbary sartang A, fallahi R. Occupational exposure to chemotherapy drugs and its impact on reproductive toxicity and infertility in men and women: A review study. ioh 2025; 22 (1) : 24
URL: http://ioh.iums.ac.ir/article-1-3707-en.html
URL: http://ioh.iums.ac.ir/article-1-3707-en.html
MSc Occupational Health Engineering ،Abadan University of Medical Sciences، Abadan ، Iran , aioobghanbary@ymail.com
Abstract: (415 Views)
Chemotherapy drugs, while playing a vital role in cancer treatment, have irreversible effects on the human body if hospital personnel are exposed to them at work. This review study aimed to investigate occupational exposure to chemotherapy drugs and its impact on reproductive toxicity and infertility in men and women. This review study used 45 Persian, English articles and guidelines published between 1990 and 2025 and Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, Wiley, ScienceDirect and Springer databases. The words antineoplastic drugs, occupational exposure, infertility and reproductive toxicity were used to search for words in Persian and English. The results of various studies showed that occupational exposure to chemotherapy drugs causes infertility in men and women and reproductive toxicity. Occupational exposure to some of these drugs, such as cyclophosphamide and cabazitaxel, has definite effects on the reproductive system. The reproductive effects of these drugs in men are infertility, impaired testicular function, and reduced sperm count, and in women, menstrual disorders, spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, fetal abnormalities, and low birth weight, cell nuclear damage, ovarian damage, and delayed pregnancy. The results of this study showed that anticancer drugs can have dangerous and threatening side effects for personnel exposed to these drugs, and protective measures should be taken to reduce occupational exposure, including engineering controls and the use of biological safety hoods, continuous personnel training and management control, the development of safe work methods, the use of closed systems in the preparation of drugs, and standard personal protective equipment.
Article number: 24
Type of Study: Review Article |
Subject:
Occupational Diseases
Received: 2024/12/23 | Accepted: 2025/10/4 | Published: 2025/03/30
Received: 2024/12/23 | Accepted: 2025/10/4 | Published: 2025/03/30
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