Hope for Hearing Loss Cancer Patients

A DRUG to protect cancer sufferers against hearing damage could be available within a year.

Balance problems, tinnitus and profound deafness are all reported among the 68,000 patients a year who are treated with cisplatin, a platinumbased chemotherapy.

Cisplatin treats a range of cancers including lung, bladder, liver, bone, head and neck.

But up to 90 per cent of adult patients may experience some hearing loss and children face an even higher risk. Trials have now found that a drug called sodium thiosulfate protects the inner ear from damage.

Penelope Brock, a consultant paediatric oncologist at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: ‘This drug could be available for patients within the next year.

‘The cure rate for childhood cancer has improved considerably over past decades and now exceeds 70 per cent.

‘Cisplatin has been, and will continue to be, a major contributor. However, this cure is not without cost to the child.’ Dr Ralph Holme, biomedical research manager at the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, said sodium thiosulfate was the most promising ear protection agent so far.

‘We need in- depth trials to work out the dose and when to use it in conjunction with cisplatin,’ he said.