Table 4.
Patient-Reported Hearing Loss (HL) versus Audiometrically-Defined HL at Extended-High Frequencies (10 and 12 kHz), Standard Audiometric Frequencies (0.25-8 kHz), and Both Sets of Frequencies Among TCS Without Tinnitus
| Patient- reported hearing loss |
No audiometrically- defined HL a |
Audiometrically-defined HL at only EHFs (10 or 12 kHz), but none at standard frequencies (0.25-8 kHz) a |
Audiometrically-defined HL at only standard frequencies(0.25-8 kHz) but noneat EHFs (10 and 12 kHz) a |
Audiometrically-defined HL at both EHFs (10 or 12 kHz)and standard frequencies (0.25-8 kHz)a |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N (%) | N (%) | OR (95%CI) (vs no HL) |
N (%) | OR (95%CI) (vs no HL) |
N (%) | OR (95%CI) (vs no HL) |
|
| Number b | 179 | 252 | 32 | 286 | |||
| Difficulty hearing c | |||||||
| Not at all | 160 (91.95) | 203 (82.2) | 2.48 (1.31-4.68)f | 27 (84.4) | 2.12 (0.70-6.36) | 213 (76.6) | 3.49 (1.89-6.44)f |
| Any degree | 14 (8.05) | 44 (17.8)e | 5 (15.6) | 65 (23.4) | |||
| Problems hearing speech-in-background-noise d | |||||||
| No | 149 (88.2) | 198 (83.9) | 1.43 (0.80-2.56) | 28 (87.5) | 1.06 (0.34-3.35) | 209 (78.0) | 2.10 (1.21-3.64)f |
| Yes | 20 (11.8) | 38 (16.1) | 4 (12.5) | 59 (22.0) | |||
Abbreviations: EHF, extended high frequency; HL, hearing loss; N, number, TCS, testicular cancer survivors
Audiometrically-defined hearing loss was defined based on American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) criteria that defined HL as hearing thresholds that exceeded 20 dB at any frequency for either ear (Frisina et al. 2016; Le Prell et al. 2011).
Among a total of 823 patients without tinnitus, 74 had missing audiometry data at frequencies of both 10 kHz and 12 kHz and are excluded from the table.
Difficulty hearing was assessed with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy 20-item quality-of-life questionnaire (EORTC-CIPN-20) on the basis of symptoms experienced over the past 4 weeks (Postma et al. 2005). Any degree of difficulty hearing included participant responses of a little, quite a bit, or very much.
Problems hearing speech-in-background-noise was defined if patients answered “yes” to the following question “Problems hearing words, sounds, or language in crowds?”.
Patients with HL at only EHFs who reported any degree of hearing difficulty (N=44) compared to those with no audiometrically HL who reported any degree of hearing difficulty (N=14) had a significantly higher median age at audiometry (37 vs 30 years, P= 0.0002), but there were no significant difference between these two groups in terms of cumulative cisplatin dose as a continuous variable (P=0.68), middle ear deficits (pure conductive/mixed HL vs. no/pure sensorineural HL, P=0.32), noise exposure (P=0.90), and time since chemotherapy (year) as a continuous variable (P=0.47).
Denotes P values of Pearson Chi-square test with significance at P<0.05.