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Amifostine improved cisplatin-induced hearing loss in average-risk medulloblastoma
Treatment with amifostine was associated with protection from cisplatin-induced hearing loss among patients with newly diagnosed, average-risk medulloblastoma, according to study results.
The analysis included 379 patients aged 3 to 21 years who were enrolled on one of two clinical protocols at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
All patients received four courses of 75 mg/m2 cisplatin. Some patients also received 600 mg/m2 amifostine (Ethyol, MedImmune) immediately before or 3 hours into cisplatin infusion; however, researchers noted amifostine administration was not randomized.
Researchers conducted audiological evaluations between 5.5 and 24.5 months following study treatment.
Amifostine reduced the risk for serious hearing loss — defined as a ≥2b grade using the Chang Ototoxicity Scale —among 263 average-risk patients (adjusted OR=0.30; 95% CI, 0.14-0.64).
However, amifostine was not associated with protection from hearing loss among the 116 high-risk patients (OR=0.89; 95% CI, 0.31-2.54).
“Although patients in this study were not randomly assigned to amifostine treatment, we found evidence in favor of amifostine administration for protection against cisplatin-induced serious hearing loss in average-risk, but not in high-risk, medulloblastoma patients,” the researchers wrote.
Disclosure: See the study for a full list of the researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.