YOUNGER CHILDREN ARE MORE PRONE TO CHEMOTHERAPY-RELATED HEARING LOSS

A STUDY DISCOVERED THAT YOUNGER CHILDREN ARE MORE PRONE TO CHEMOTHERAPY-RELATED HEARING LOSS

Edited by, SNEHA MAVIS

According to the recent UBC research, a chemotherapy drug known to cause hearing loss in children is more likely to do so the sooner it is given to them. Cisplatin is a life-saving treatment for many children with cancer, but a new study published in Cancer demonstrates that the hearing of very young children is harmed earlier and to a higher amount than that of older children during treatment. According to previous research, up to 60% of children treated with cisplatin develop hearing loss, with 40% of those children requiring hearing aids.

"This is significant because even a moderate loss of hearing can affect social development in children, particularly when it occurs during a critical period of language acquisition", said Dr. Bruce Carleton, senior author of the study and professor in the department of paediatrics at UBC's Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Carleton and his colleagues evaluated data from 368 Canadian childhood cancer patients who received cisplatin and performed a total of 2,052 audiological examinations to better understand the course of cisplatin-related hearing loss. All of the patients had finished their cisplatin treatment.

75 percent of kids five years old and younger, and 48% of patients older than five, developed cisplatin-related hearing loss three years after starting medication. A larger total cisplatin dose at three months, co-prescriptions of the chemotherapy drug vincristine, and a longer duration of antibiotics provided concurrently increased cisplatin-related hearing loss over time.

The underlying reason for the increased prevalence of cisplatin-related hearing loss in young infants is unknown, however growing tissues within the inner ear may be more prone to cisplatin's toxic effects.