Objective: The International Guideline Harmonization Group recommended childhood cancer survivors (CCS) exposed to ototoxic treatments be aware of the risk of hearing loss. We assessed awareness among adult CCS. Methods: We identified adults diagnosed with cancer <20 years who had received ototoxic treatments through the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry (ChCR) and invited them to the HEAR-study. Participants completed a questionnaire and underwent pure-tone audiometry. Cancer and treatment data came from the ChCR. We used logistic regression to explore factors influencing awareness. Results: 105 of 424 invited CCS participated (25%). 57% did not remember receiving information on hearing loss prior to the study. CCS who remembered being informed were more likely diagnosed after 1995 (OR: 4.5, 95% CI: 1.3-15.4), reported hearing problems (10.9, 2.6-45.1) and other late effects (4.1, 1.3-13.2), and treated with platinum chemotherapy only (10.8, 2.2-53.2) versus cranial radiotherapy only. 44% of participants had clinically relevant hearing loss according to SIOP-Boston ototoxicity scale. Conclusions: Over half of CCS exposed to ototoxic treatments were unaware of their risk of hearing loss. Practice Implications: Educating CCS about potential late effects of ototoxic treatments is important to allow early diagnosis and treatment, especially for those who had cancer longer ago and those exposed to cranial radiation.

Nicolas Waespe reports a relationship with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB that includes advisory board membership, consulting, and travel reimbursement and a relationship with Novartis that includes advisory board membership. None of these relationships are in association with the current study.

https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/63627

This work was financially supported by the Swiss Cancer League and Swiss Cancer Research (grant number HSR-4951-11-2019, KLS/KFS-5711-01-2022, and KFS-5302-02-2021). The CANSEARCH foundation, Kinderkrebs Schweiz Foundation, and Zoe4Life Foundation supported NW.

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