Children having chemotherapy can benefit from new method that may slash risk of ... trends now
Thousands of children undergoing chemotherapy could have their hearing saved thanks to a new treatment spearheaded by Cancer Research UK.
Trials found adding sodium thiosulphate, better known as an antidote for cyanide, to a common chemotherapy drug cut the chance of hearing loss by 50 per cent.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to give the green light to the treatment by the end of the year, paving the way for its rollout on the NHS.
Experts hope it will spare most children treated from one of the most devastating side-effects of cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug for children with solid tumours.
Most of the 1,800 or so children in the UK who each year develop cancer are treated with long-standing therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy
Instead, children are treated with hand-me-down drugs that were all developed for adult cancers. Instructions on how to donate are seen above
Most parents would say their child is one in a million but Luke Everett’s rare cancer diagnosis means he literally is.
He was six months old when he was diagnosed with a type of liver cancer, hepatoblastoma, which affects one in a million children.
His mother Claire, 46, discovered a large, hard lump below Luke’s ribcage. ‘Cancer didn’t cross my mind,’ she said. ‘Everything changed that evening.’
Luke became the third child worldwide to take part in a trial into whether a drug taken alongside chemotherapy could prevent the side-effect of hearing loss.
Now 15, Luke has full hearing thanks to the SIOPEL-6 trial.
Luke, now 15, was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a type of liver cancer, when he was six months old
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It comes the day after the Daily Mail launched the Fighting to Beat Children’s Cancer campaign in partnership with the charity.
We are asking readers to dig deep and raise funds to help test vital medicines like this on thousands of children a year, potentially benefiting generations to come.
Dr Penelope Brock, who led the trial, said its approval would ‘transform lives’.
The retired paediatric consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital said acquired hearing loss was more difficult for children to adapt to than those born deaf, with
