Study population and study design.
This is a retrospective observational study of children that underwent 5-years long-term hearing monitoring after chemotherapy and that were selected among 116 children treated with platinum compounds for solid tumours in our Institution from 2007 to 2014. The inclusion criteria were: age at the first platinum course ≤18 years, no administration of other ototoxic drugs, audiological baseline evaluation (within 2 weeks of the beginning of treatment), audiological monitoring during chemotherapy (including a re-evaluation prior to each chemotherapy cycle) and an yearly audiological long-term follow-up for at least 5 years after the end of chemotherapy. Exclusion criteria was a diagnosis of hearing loss at the baseline evaluation before chemotherapy.
Based on inclusion criteria we enrolled 38 children treated with platinum compounds and that completed a 5 years long-term follow-up. Patient’s demographic characteristics, disease status and therapeutic strategies are summarized in Table 1. Briefly, median age at the beginning of treatments was 6 (range 1–18), the male-to-female ratio was 1,375. Most of the primitive lesions were brain tumours (glioma, medulloblastoma and astrocytoma), but aggressive tumours like neuroblastomas, osteosarcomas, germ cell tumours and retinoblastomas were also included.
About treatment modalities: