"Accelerated ear-age": a new measure of chemotherapy-induced ototoxicity.

Currently, there are several different scales that grade chemotherapy-induced ototoxicity. This report highlights how the implications of the conclusions drawn from each scale differ and compare these prior scales to a more functionally based scale developed at Children's Hospital Boston. Additionally, this report introduces the concept of ear-age, akin to the age at which one would expect the observed decrease in hearing as a consequence of normative aging (but documented in a child or young adult following chemotherapy). Pediatr Blood Cancer 2012; 59: 947949. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.