Among sensorineural hearing loss patients, genetic factors are directly or indirectly responsible for up to 60% of cases, and mutations of more than 100 genes cause severe congenital or progressive hearing loss (Zhang et al., 2018). Genetic mutations are also major predisposing factors in age-related, acquired, and some middle ear related causes of hearing loss (Yang et al., 2015) (Zhang et al., 2018). Gene therapy is therefore a logical and promising novel method of treating hearing loss. The topic of gene therapy for hearing loss is broad, and this article will briefly summarize the promises and challenges of cochlear gene therapy preclinical studies. Future articles will delve into more s
Certain types of antineoplastic therapies, particularly platinum-based drugs, are particularly toxic to the ears. While this is well known to researchers and clinicians who study these treatments, many members of the toxicity community are unaware of the auditory risks posed by some cancer therapies. This brief review will serve as an introduction to the link between platinum-based cancer therapies and auditory damage, and hopefully inspire developers of new cancer therapies to consider ototoxicity in the course of preclinical development. Chemotherapeutic and Supportive Agents Platinum-based chemotherapy drugs (cisplatin, carboplatin, oxaliplatin, and others) are widely used in adults aga