Skip to main content
AAO-HNSF 2023 Annual Meeting & OTO Experience Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Back
Rate ePoster

Otology/Neurotology

(055) Audiological Outcomes in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma After Treatment

Monday, October 2, 2023
2:45 PM – 3:45 PM East Coast USA Time

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Somya Shankar, BS

    Medical Student
    Thomas Jefferson University
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • Glen E. D'Souza, MD

    Research Fellow
    Thomas Jefferson University
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

  • AB

    Anna Bixler, AuD

    Thomas Jefferson University, USA

  • Rebecca C. Chiffer, MD

    Assistant Professor
    Thomas Jefferson University
    Philadelphia, PA, United States

    • Senior Author(s)

  • TW

    Thomas O. Willcox, Jr., MD

    Associate Professor, Director Balance & Hearing Center
    Thomas Jefferson University
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Disclosure(s):
Somya Shankar, BS: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Glen E. D'Souza, MD: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Thomas O. Willcox, MD, Jr.: No relevant relationships to disclose.


Introduction: Sensorineural hearing loss is a known complication following chemoradiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Furthermore, patients treated for NPC are prone to develop other otologic complications due to the disease process or as a consequence of radiotherapy (RT). This study describes the long-term audiological outcomes of patients with NPC after receiving chemoradiation at a single academic center.

Methods: IRB approved retrospective review of electronic medical records was conducted to identify patients diagnosed with NPC from 2004 to 2019. Pre and post treatment audiology data was collected and compared over time using paired t-test (SPSS 27).

Results: Of the 90 patients diagnosed with NPC during the study period, 21 (23.3%) had undergone pre and post treatment audiological evaluation. The mean age at biopsy was 53.51 years and the mean BMI was 26.15 kg/m2 . A majority of the study population were males (72%) with 47% being of Asian descent.

Air conduction (AC) worsened following treatment bilaterally from 30.66 dB to 35.95 dB in the right ear, (p=0.081) and 32.42 dB to 36.28 dB in the left ear (p=0.27). Bone conduction (BC) changed marginally from 26 dB to 24.40 dB(p=0.55) in the right ear and from 25.60 dB to 26.80 dB (0.76) in the left ear over a follow-up period of 526 days.

At the second follow-up period of mean 1321 days, AC further worsened to 37.71 dB (p=0.005) in the right ear and 48.28 (p=0.008) in the left ear while BC was 30.5 in the right ear and 28.25 in the left ear

Conclusions: Air and bone conduction is affected secondary to the disease process as well as due to the treatment of NPC. Pretreatment and regular post-treatment audiological evaluation in patients following treatment of NPC can help in the early identification of hearing loss, and providers should standardize this practice. Over the follow-up period, AC worsened significantly while BC did not. Further larger studies are required to evaluate the benefit of surgical intervention for conductive hearing loss following management of NPC as well as to ascertain the change in sensorineural hearing with time.