"This federally-funded, cooperative group study is the first to show that cisplatin-induced hearing loss can be reduced by about half in children and adolescents being treated for cancer," said David R. Freyer, DO, MS, director of the Survivorship & Supportive Care Program in the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, who was lead author and chair of the study. "It is an important step toward developing a safe and effective strategy that will greatly improve quality of life for cancer survivors." Freyer is also professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Cisplatin is a chemotherapy medication widely used to treat a variety of cancers in both adults and children. Although effective, cisplatin frequently causes permanent hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing in the ears), resulting in functional disability for patients who receive it. For young children in particular, hearing loss is especially serious because it results in impaired language development, learning and social interactions. Preventing ototoxicity, while preserving chemotherapeutic efficacy, has been a long-standing goal of physicians, scientists, parents and survivors. Historically, there have been no proven treatments for preventing cisplatin-induced hearing loss tested under the rigorous conditions of ACCL0431. Without otoprotection, the only way to prevent hearing loss is to delete or decrease cisplatin doses, which could render the cancer treatment less effective.