Is Routine Audiometric Evaluation Necessary in Gynaecologic Tumour Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy?

Background: Our objective was to assess the auditory function
ofgynaecological tumour patients who had received cytotoxic agents
and todetermine their associated risk of ototoxicity. Patients and
Methods: 87patients who had undergone chemotherapy for
gynaecological malignancieswere investigated. Of these patients,
79% had breast cancer, and 14%ovarian cancer. All of the patients
had a subjective assessment of theirhearing function on a visual
analogue scale. Audiometric tests wereperformed before and at 9
weeks, 18 weeks and 3 months after completionof chemotherapy.
Results: The age of the patients ranged from 32 to 71years (mean
age of 53.5 +/- 10.5 years). The average subjective ratingof the
patients’ hearing function was 83.0 +/- 17.2 before and 84.8
+/-16.9 3 months after completion of chemotherapy. No
significantaudiometric change at either the speech hearing
frequency range (0.5-2KHz) or high frequencies was observed in the
patients afterchemotherapy. There was also no significant
difference in the hearingthreshold of the patients who had received
platinum analogue-basedchemotherapy compared to non-platinum
analogue-based chemotherapy.Conclusion: Hearing loss is uncommon in
patients treated with thetypical gynaecological chemotherapy
protocols. Hence, routineaudiometric testing in these patients is
not necessary.