Hearing Assessment after Treatment of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma with CRT and IMRT Techniques

الملخص EN

Objectives.

This study analyzed the long-term hearing loss after treatment of primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma to elucidate its causal factors.

Methods.

Ninety-two nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients were treated with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy.

Pure tone audiometry was performed before the therapy and annually up to 9 years after completing treatment.

The hearing thresholds were corrected for age-related deterioration and compared to the results without adjusting for age.

Results.

The mean air and bone conduction threshold with and without correction for age-related deterioration differed significantly 2–9 years after completing radiotherapy p < 0.05 .

The audiometry results with age correction showed a flattened configuration compared to the results without age correction.

The total radiation dose and radiation modality showed a causal relationship with a greater incidence of hearing loss after therapy p < 0.05 .

There was more deterioration in the air and bone hearing thresholds with conformal radiotherapy than intensity-modulated radiotherapy p < 0.001 .

A radiation dose >72 cGy resulted in more severe hearing loss than <72 cGy p < 0.05 .

Conclusion.

Hearing loss after completing therapy should be corrected for age-related hearing deterioration to reveal the true extent to which the loss is a therapeutic complication.

Both the radiation modality used and the dose were significantly associated with hearing loss.