Cisplatin-Induced Hearing Loss

Abstract

For decades, cisplatin chemotherapy has significantly increased survival in numerous cancer patient populations. However, cisplatin treatment results in severe adverse side effects including nephrotoxicity, neurotoxicity, radiation-induced oral mucositis, ototoxicity, and permanent hearing loss. Protection from cisplatin’s adverse side effects has therefore been a translational research focus for many years. This chapter discusses cisplatin’s historical discovery, its clinical application, and cisplatin-induced ototoxicity mechanisms. The chapter then reviews current translational research to protect from cisplatin-induced hearing loss, including clinical behavioral and objective monitoring techniques; adult and pediatric grading scales implemented to measure and identify cisplatin-induced ototoxicity; and potential otoprotective mechanisms that are currently tested to prevent cisplatin-induced ototoxicity in animals and clinical trials. Finally, the chapter reviews potential clinical trial funding and the steps required by the FDA, including the extensive investigational new drug (IND) application, to test otoprotective agents for protection from cisplatin-induced hearing loss. At the chapter’s end, readers should acquire general knowledge underlying cisplatin’s intricate history and clinical cisplatin use and understand the steps required to design and perform translational otoprotection studies to prevent cisplatin-induced ototoxicity and permanent hearing loss.