OBJECTIVE: To analyze hearing complaints and the audiological profile of cancer patients. METHODS: Thirty-three patients underwent chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy treatments in the oncology section of the Hospital de Urgências de Sergipe (Aracaju, Brazil). An anamnesis was taken and tonal and vocal audiometry was performed. RESULTS: Sixty-six ears were analyzed. Based on audiometry, 45 ears had normal hearing thresholds and 28 ears had sensor neural hearing loss. The average age was 46.4 years among the normal hearing individuals, and the patients were predominantly females (95.6%). On average, the patients had undergone 8.2 chemotherapy courses and 18.44 radiotherapy courses. In the sample, 42.2% of the patients subjectively reported hearing difficulties; however, there was no significant difference (p = 0.29). The average age in the hearing loss group was 50.5 years, and most of them were females (85.7%). The hearing loss group on average had undergone 27.6 radiotherapy courses and 5.9 chemotherapy courses. In the hearing loss group, all patients expressed hearing complaints. Mann-Whitney test showed a significant difference when the variables of age (p = 0.008) and the number of chemotherapy courses (p = 0.004) were compared between these 2 groups. CONCLUSION: Hearing complaints in patients undergoing cancer treatment provide valuable information in audiological evaluation, especially when seeking an early diagnosis.
