A trial to see if aspirin can reduce hearing loss caused by cisplatin (COAST)

The study team concluded that aspirin does not help to reduce hearing loss caused by cisplatin.

This was a phase 2 trial. 94 people who were going to have cisplatin for the first time took part. There were:

• 23 people with bladder cancer
• 12 people with germ cell tumour
• 35 people with head and neck cancer
• 24 people with lung cancer

This was a randomised trial. Everyone was put into 1 of the following treatment groups by computer:

• aspirin and omeprazole
• dummy drug (placebo )

Neither they nor their doctor could choose which group they were in. And neither they nor their doctor knew which treatment they were having. This was a double blind trial.

The team looked at the number of people that took part in each group:

• 45 people took part in the aspirin and omeprazole group
• 49 people took part in the dummy drug group 

Everyone had aspirin or a dummy drug for 4 to 5 days, each time they had cisplatin.

The study team then compared people’s hearing before and after treatment with cisplatin. They found that the hearing loss after treatment was the same for both groups.

They also found that:

• people who had the best hearing before treatment were the ones with the biggest hearing loss after cisplatin
• women had bigger hearing loss than men
• people who had cisplatin as a treatment for head and neck cancer had bigger hearing loss than people who had cisplatin for other types of cancer
• hearing loss was the same for all ages
• there was no major side effects from aspirin

The trial team concluded that aspirin does not help to reduce hearing loss caused by treatment with cisplatin.

We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) but may not have been published in a medical journal.  The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.