United States: A study over fourteen years shows that a specific drug which is used to treat cancer called Cisplatin might cause hearing loss in the patients who used to have testicular cancer ever in their lifetime. This drug Cisplatin been used to treat different kinds of cancer for a long time, including bladder, lung, neck, testicular cancer and many more.
Expert Insight on Treatment Decisions
Dr. Robert Frisina from the University of South Florida said that knowing about this side effect could help doctors make better treatment choices for their patients.
“This research gives oncologists the information they need to explore alternative treatment plans that could reduce the long-term side effects,” he said in a USF news release.
Potential Adjustments in Cisplatin Therapy
Such things might include altering the dosages and particular timings of the cisplatin in the treatment, when that could be an appropriate option explained by Frisina.
These particular findings have already been published in the journal JAMA Oncology.
Study Details and Findings
This study was conducted and can be led by Dr. Victoria Sanchez, an associate professor of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at USF. Over an average of 14 years, her team tracked the health of men who’d been treated for and survived testicular cancers.
Here, the researchers found that all these people and the stats of these people are men, that is, 78 percent of men who received this particular cisplatin-based chemotherapy did have some trouble with their hearing by the end of the follow-up period, and their issues with the hearing loss are going on. Their hearing loss can be causing, Significant difficulties in everyday listening situations, negatively impacting their quality of life according to the USF News Release.
Impact of Cisplatin Dosage and Other Risk Factors
The total extent of the hearing loss rose along with the dose of cisplatin, and that was especially true for people with other risk factors, such as high blood pressure and any kind of heart disease.
According to the Sanchez’s team, the drug is administered intravenously and permeates much of the body. However, the ears really face some challenges in filtering out cisplatin.
Future Considerations for Patient Care
“It will be critically important to follow these patients for life. 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,” said study senior author Dr. Lois Travis who is the ultimate professor of cancer research at Indiana University School of Medicine.