Introduction: Although ototoxicity and neuropathy are common side effects of cisplatin,
there is no evidence of altered olfactory function in cancer patients receiving cisplatin
based chemotherapy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cisplatin on
olfactory function.
Materials and Methods: Fifty-eight patients (13 female, and 45 male with a mean age of 54
years) who needed to be treated with cisplatin based chemotherapy at our institution were
enrolled in this study. Cisplatin with a dose of 70-100 mg/m2 was administered per cycle in
different chemotherapy regimens. Olfactory function and audiometery were tested before
beginning chemotherapy (as baseline). Assessment of olfactory function also was carried out
before each cycle of cisplatin and finally olfactory test and audiometery was performed at least
3 weeks after the last course of cisplatin based chemotherapy.
Results: Of 58 patients enrolled in this study, seven patients died due to their cancer and 51
patients completed the planned chemotherapeutic treatment. The patients received cisplatin at
a cumulative dose of 100-700 mg/m2 (mean cumulative dose: 380 mg/m2) during their
chemotherapy treatment. Hearing impairment was documented in fourteen patients and four
patients developed hyposmia and one patient anosmia that had no hearing loss. The test score
changes were not statistically significant but there was a statistically significant correlation
between drug dose and hearing loss (P=0.039).
Conclusion: The results of this study showed that cisplatin has no statistically significant
effect on the sense of smell at doses which cause hearing impairment.