Familial hearing loss and cisplatin therapy

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Genetics
• Oncology

Background:

• Familial high-tone hearing loss is a recessive genetic trait in males.
• Cisplatin chemotherapy is known to potentially cause hearing loss.
• Preexisting hearing deficits can complicate the assessment of chemotherapy-induced ototoxicity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the prevalence of pre-existing familial high-tone hearing loss in male patients with testicular carcinoma before cisplatin chemotherapy.
• To differentiate familial hearing loss from noise-induced or other acquired hearing impairments.

Main Methods:

• Review of audiograms from 85 male patients with testicular carcinoma prior to cisplatin treatment.
• Clinical history assessment to identify noise exposure and other common hearing loss causes.
• Classification of audiometric findings into normal hearing or varying degrees of impairment.

Main Results:

• 51 patients had normal pretreatment audiograms.
• 19 patients showed hearing abnormalities linked to high-level noise exposure.
• 15 patients exhibited high-frequency hearing loss without identifiable external causes, suggesting a recessive familial trait.

Conclusions:

• Recessive familial high-tone hearing loss is present in a notable subset of male patients with testicular carcinoma.
• Identifying this pre-existing condition is vital for accurate monitoring of cisplatin-induced ototoxicity.
• Pretreatment audiometric evaluation is recommended for male patients scheduled for cisplatin chemotherapy.