Context

Cisplatin is one of the most widely used anti-cancer drugs. It has severe side effects such as ototoxicity, resulting in irreversible hearing loss and balance disorders, but also kidney or peripheral nervous system toxicities.

Benefits

The research team identified the intracellular pathway involved in cisplatin-induced cytotoxicities. In preclinical models, pharmacological blockage of this pathway not only protects against hearing loss but also improves the effectiveness of cisplatin anti-cancer action. These findings have very promising implications for the improvement of the therapeutic index of cisplatin but more broadly in other chemo/radiotherapeutic therapies in oncology that damage DNA. This improvement in the therapeutic index is defined by the improvement of the toxicity-efficiency ratio, these toxicities can be ototoxicity, nephrotoxicity, neurotoxicity...

Applications

Oncology : patients treated with DNA-damaging agents (cisplatin, chemotherapeutics, radiotherapeutics ...)