European project involves Portuguese researchers. The idea is to identify risks of hearing impairment caused by cisplatin.
A cisplatin is an antineoplastic drug with biochemical properties similar to those of bifunctional alkylating agents.
It is a drug widely used in oncology – but often associated with irreversible auditory toxicity. In other words, it can cause hearing losses.
Now a European consortium has emerged, involving researchers from the University of Coimbra, to develop a system to prevent this hearing loss.
The project wants to develop and validate a telemedicine that allows home hearing monitoring of patients undergoing chemotherapy with cisplatin.
“Through a application installed in a tablet com headphones of active noise reductionpatients will be able to perform home audiometric testseliminating unnecessary travel and ensuring more equitable monitoring, especially in rural areas or with less access to specialized care”, explains Joel P. Arrais, project coordinator on the Portuguese side.
“In addition to proposing an innovative technological solution for monitoring and prevention, it also aims to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare and contribute to environmental sustainability, by reducing travel and optimizing hospital resources”, describes Joel, in a statement sent to ZAP.
A Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra is essential in this project due to its assistance in the Artificial intelligence.
Coimbra researchers will create Machine learning and genomic sequencing data analysis models. The objective is to identify new pharmacogenomic patterns that make it possible to predict which patients are most genetically predisposed to cisplatin-induced hearing loss, thus contributing to personalized and safer treatments.
“The integration of clinical, audiometric and genomic data through AI will allow us to anticipate the risk of hearing toxicity before it manifests itself, paving the way for truly personalized medicine”, concludes Joel P. Arrais.
