Hearing and cochlear morphology in patients treated with a combination of cytostatics

Patients with small-cell carcinoma of the lung were treated at the Department of Lung Medicine. They all received the same combination treatment with repeated doses of doxorubicin, vincristine, cyclophosphamide and methotrexate. In 26 patients, hearing was tested with repeated audiograms during treatment. The follow-up time varied between one and 19 months (mean, 6 months). There was no significant impairment of hearing during the follow-up period. Postmortem fixation of the temporal bones was performed in 7 patients and the cochlear morphology studied. No specific alterations in cochlear morphology which could be attributed to the cytostatics were found.