Researchers Investigate Aspirin For Hearing Loss Prevention

Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Institution have started a trial to find if high doses of aspirin can protect cancer patients from hearing loss. Hearing loss is a relatively common side effect in cancer patients who are being treated with the chemotherapy drug cisplatin. The trial started this past Thursday.

The trial could provide some hope for a large number of patients that undergo cisplatin treatment for cancer. In the UK, around 18,500 cancer patients are treated with cisplatin annually, and almost half of those patients suffer some degree of permanent hearing loss. That hearing loss can range from minor tinnitus to deafness in one or both of the ears.

The Cancer Research UK study is a Phase 2 trial named COAST. The researchers have entered 88 cancer patients into the study, all of which have been treated with cisplatin at hospitals in cities such as London, Southampton, Glasgow, Leeds, and Cardiff.

Professor Emma King, the chief investigator of the study, says that Aspirin is beneficial in cleaning up the destructive molecules that are a result of cisplatin treatment. “Cisplatin is used to treat several different types of cancer and undoubtedly saves many thousands of lives every year. So it’s very unfortunate that for some patients this comes at the cost of some or all of their hearing. We don’t know exactly why this is, but it could be linked to the drug causing a buildup of destructive molecules called ‘free radicals’. But aspirin seems to stop this happening by helping to mop them up before they can damage the delicate inner ear structures,” said King.

King went on to say that high doses of aspirin could come with their own serious side effects, and that it was important to monitor the rates of those effects, such as internal bleeding. The trial will be using specially coated aspirin tablets that react only once it reaches the small intestine. Patients will also be taking another drug that cuts down on digestive juices in order to prevent bleeding in the stomach.

If the Phase 2 trial is successful, there will be a larger Phase 3 trial conducted that could determine if aspirin can be widely used as a treatment to prevent hearing loss from cisplatin.