Do you check baseline or surveillance audiometry (if not overtly symptomatic) to screen for hearing loss in all patients getting cisplatin?
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
I disagree. When we started testis studies in 1974 with PVB, we did baseline audiometry and repeated it at 9 weeks, 3 months and 6 months. Everyone experiences a certain degree of high frequency hearing loss which is usually reversible. During the past 40 years we NEVER get baseline audiometry as te...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
Interesting response! (And thanks for the pathophysiology lesson!) We don't get audiometry for our lung cancer patients on cisplatin if they have no hearing complaints prior to therapy. First, they rarely get months and months of treatment, so it rarely is a clinical problem for lung cancer patients...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
Yes. I always initiate a baseline audiometry test in all of my patients initiating cisplatin-based therapy. For each patient on full-dose cisplatin therapy, I then conduct monitoring before each cycle of therapy and follow-up audiometry one month, three months and six months post-therapy.  ...
Comments
Medical Oncologist at Kaiser Permanente So if you find audiometry change but patient repor...
Medical Oncologist at Stanford University Medical Center I usually don't always change therapy but it promp...