Protecting patients from chemo-related hearing impairment
27 June 2025
An Australian led clinical trial has demonstrated a way to dramatically reduce hearing impairment which can occur as a side effect of a widely used chemotherapy drug.
Cisplatin is used to treat a range of cancers including testicular, ovarian, bladder, head and neck, and lung cancers. More than half of adults and children treated with this drug experience some degree of hearing loss, which can significantly impact their quality of life.
This Phase IB trial, co-led by Professor Danny Rischin, involved 22 patients who were given an injection in each ear in the hours before receiving this chemotherapy.
The aim was to shield sensitive hair cells and structures of the inner ear from damage, while patients still receive the maximum cancer-fighting benefit from this chemotherapy.
In one ear, trial participants had the experimental drug “DB-020” injected while in their other ear, a placebo was injected. This ensured one ear provided a baseline to assess the other, to later check for any hearing loss or benefit from the drug.
In follow-up tests, hearing loss was detected in 85% of placebo-treated ears while in ears treated with DB-020 this was significantly reduced, indicating the drug had a protective effect.
DB-020 was tested in two different dosages – and for the lower dose, hearing loss was detected in 54% of treated ears while, for the higher dose, hearing loss was detected in just 22% of treated ears. As dose went up so did the protection.
“These findings represent a significant step forward in addressing one of the most persistent challenges in cancer treatment,” says Professor Rischin, who is Research Lead for Head and Neck Cancer at Peter Mac.
“Currently, patients face a very difficult choice between optimal treatment and preserving their hearing. A solution that allows both would dramatically improve patients’ overall cancer journey.”
Further clinical trials, confirming this benefit in larger patient groups, would be needed before this could become a standard protective treatment given alongside Cisplatin.
The clinical trial of DB-020 was sponsored by Decibel Therapeutics and was also co-led by Professor Ben Panizza at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Patients were enrolled at sites in Australia and the United States.
The trial results were recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, which also included an editorial highlighting the trial’s unique design of assessing hearing loss in placebo vs treated ears in every patient.
The paper is titled: “Randomized Phase Ib Clinical Trial of DB-020 Intratympanic Injections to Reduce High-Dose Cisplatin Ototoxicity” and you can read it in full here.
The accompanying editorial is titled: “Early-Phase Trials in Journal of Clinical Oncology” and you can read it here.
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About Peter Mac
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is a world leading cancer research, education and treatment centre and Australia’s only public health service dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer.