Chemotherapy Hearing Loss
Platinum-containing drugs commonly used to treat breast cancer and other cancers may hurt the hearing of young patients and adults much more often than previous studies have shown some scientists now say.
Hearing loss has long been known to be a side effect of certain chemotherapy drugs, such as cisplatin and carboplatin. Many studies of that ear damage only, counted severe cases of hearing loss, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon State University report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Chemotherapy hearing loss just one common side effect of chemotherapy!
The team ran more inclusive tests on 67 children treated with platinum-based drugs. The study found that 41 of the 67 patients, or 61 percent, had chemo-related hearing loss, which generally hit several months after treatment began. If the study used the more restrictive hearing criteria, only 17 of the 67 patients would be reported.
The study should spur more research into ways to prevent chemotherapy hearing loss and damage to the ear they say OR I say or find other ways to treat breast cancer and other cancers!
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