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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA widely-used chemotherapy drug used in cancer treatments could greatly increase patients’ long-term risk of hearing loss, according to a study by researchers at Indiana University and the University of South Florida.
The study followed a group of testicular cancer survivors for an average of 14 years, revealing that 78% experience significant difficulties in everyday listening situations.
The drug in question, cisplatin, has been used for decades to treat a wide variety of cancers, including testicular, ovarian, cervical, bladder, head and neck, esophageal lung and brain. It is usually administered in an outpatient clinic through an infusion into the patient’s vein.
The research team found higher doses of cisplatin led to more severe and progressing hearing loss, especially in patients with risk factors such as high blood pressure and poor cardiovascular health.
They also experienced increased difficulty hearing in common environments, such as loud restaurants. The findings were published in the June 6 issue of JAMA Oncology.
The ears are particularly vulnerable to damage from cisplatin treatment as they have little ability to filter out the drug, causing it to become trapped, the study said. This can lead to inflammation and destruction of sensory cells, causing hearing loss that can get worse after treatments are complete.
Researchers have long suspected that cisplatin had toxic side effects, including hypertension, obesity, infertility and metabolic disease.
Indiana University School of Medicine researchers formed a Platinum Study in 2012 to track cancer patients who had received cisplatin treatment. In 2020, the researchers received a major boost in the form of a five-year, $5.7 million National Cancer Institute grant to the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The money was used to fund an ongoing study to evaluate long-term health outcomes for cancer patients who receive platinum-based chemotherapies.
Nearly 6 million patients globally are diagnosed with cancer each year in which the first-line therapy potentially includes platinum-based chemotherapies.
The treatment is highly toxic and can lead to hearing loss, ringing in the ears, numbness in the hands and feet, and other side effects, the researchers said.
IU researchers followed more than 2,000 testicular cancer survivors as part of the Platinum Study.
“It will be critically important to follow these patients for life, Dr. Lois B. Travis, professor of cancer research at the IU School of Medicine and a researcher at the Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in written remarks. “Their current median age is only 48 years, and eventually they will enter the years at which age-related hearing loss also begins to develop.”
Victoria Sanchez, associate professor in the USF Health Department of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, said that despite the known risks, there’s a nationwide lack of routine hearing assessments for patients undergoing chemotherapy.
“Most patients still do not get their hearing tested prior to, during or after chemotherapy,” she said in written remarks. “Our study highlights the need for regular auditory evaluations to manage and mitigate long-term hearing damage.”
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