Long-Term Effects of the Synergistic Interaction of Cisplatin and Noise

As cancer treatments advance, more patients survive each year. Of these survivors, many have experienced treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs like cisplatin that have aided in and enabled their recovery. Cisplatin, a chemotherapeutic drug used to combat head, neck, and urological cancers, is highly ototoxic and causes significant high-frequency cochlear hearing loss, as well as increased susceptibility to noise damage, leading to even more severe hearing losses. The current study assessed whether rats that have been exposed to cisplatin see potentiated noise-induced hearing loss, and determined if the increased susceptibility to noise damage lasts for a period of time after the cisplatin treatment interval. The study found that subjects’ susceptibility to noise damage was still increased even four months after the end of cisplatin treatment, suggesting that the effects of this drug can last longer than only the duration of the drug administration itself. Further, the rats involved in this study experienced potentiated losses in frequencies indirectly affected by cisplatin (10, 15, and 20 kHz), indicating that the entirety of the cochlea was affected by the drug, and not merely the high frequencies. Further study is required to evaluate the clinical ramifications of these findings in humans and to develop appropriate counseling strategies to combat these effects, but the results provide an initial indication that clinical patients who have been administered cisplatin need to be educated on the long-term need for hearing protection from noise to avoid further hearing damage.Pelotonia Undergraduate FellowshipOffice of Undergraduate Research Summer FellowshipCollege of Arts and Sciences Research AwardDepartment of Social and Behavioral Sciences Research GrantUndergraduate Student Government Travel AwardNo embargoAcademic Major: Speech and Hearing Scienc