MDS and going deaf?

[Eva's daughter]

Hello all, just wondered whether any of you might have experienced deafness with MDS and particularly with vidaza? Mum always goes a little deaf at the end of every cycle so far... does anyone know why?

Thanks,

Emma

[Neil Cuadra]

Emma,

Hearing problems are not listed among the the common or even occasional effects of Vidaza. However, I spotted two pieces of evidence that Vidaza may adversely affect hearing:

1. There was a 2010 article in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology with the title Is there an association between 5-azacitidine and ototoxicity? (5-azacitidine is Vidaza and ototoxicity refers to toxicity that affecting hearing.)
   
   The article is available for purchase and is presumably available in medical libraries, but there is no online abstract from which we can read the article's conclusion. Still, the fact that they are asking the question must indicate that the connection has been suspected or reported.
   
   
2. I'm not much of a fan of the automated data-gathering site EHealthMe because it mixes official sources and social media sources to gather statistics about drug reactions, so you have to take their results with a grain of salt, or wait for a medical professional to interpret them.
   
   For what it's worth, the site's collected data, which is says is from the FDA, shows that hearing problems affect people taking Vidaza at a rate of about 1 in 1000 patients. This is below the reporting threshold for the more formal list of side effects that I linked to above.

I hope that your mother's hearing difficulty disappears when she no longer takes Vidaza. It's worth letting her doctor know about this symptom, in case it's a concern and because every bit of data gathered about side effects can help other patients.