Ototoxicity and Language Development in Pediatric Germ Cell Tumor Survivors
Mentor: Jenny Poynter
For his POST project, Pablo Monterroso will focus his research efforts on the impact of hearing loss on language development and educational attainment in pediatric germ cell tumor (GCT) survivors. Through this project, he will gain experience in the methods and best practices for conducting epidemiologic research. In the proposed research experience, he will have two main aims. First, he will gain fieldwork experience for collection of data for epidemiology studies of childhood cancer with a specific focus on treatment induced hearing loss. He will be involved with participant contact, medical record retrieval and data analysis. He will also conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility to evaluate ongoing hearing loss using an app-based hearing assessment that can be mailed to participants in their homes. Second, he will conduct preliminary analyses to evaluate the association between hearing loss and educational attainment and quality of life. The ALSF POST program would be a superb opportunity for Pablo as he pursues his career goals, which currently include plans to become a physician scientist.
