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How Chemotherapy-Busting Cooling Cap That Chills The Users Scalp And Reduce Hair Falling

Discussion in 'Oncology' started by Dr.Scorpiowoman, Dec 12, 2016.

  1. Dr.Scorpiowoman

    Dr.Scorpiowoman Golden Member

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    How chemotherapy-busting cooling cap that chills the users scalp reduce





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    A silicone ‘cooling cap’ that chills the scalp

    Millions of British cancer sufferers could be spared hair loss – the feared yet inevitable side effect of lifesaving chemotherapy – by a silicone ‘cooling cap’ that chills the scalp.

    Half of patients who undergo the treatment will preserve their hair, according to the results of a landmark trial announced on Friday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas.

    A comparison group of patients, who did not have scalp cooling, were also followed during the study and all suffered severe hair loss, known as chemotherapy induced alopecia.

    The treatment involves wearing a silicone cap containing chambers filled with a coolant liquid.

    Previous concerns that it might increase the likelihood of cancer spreading to the scalp were quashed earlier this year when two large studies reported that the risk was no greater in women who had undergone scalp-cooling than those who had not.

    Although hair loss affects all cancer patients, it is a real concern for women. Surveys show that more than 75 per cent of female patients fear this side effect above all others. One study even found that one in ten women would consider reducing chemotherapy or have a less effective treatment to avoid hair loss.

    Lead researcher Dr Julie Rani Nangia, assistant professor of medicine at the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center in Houston, said: ‘Chemotherapy fights cancer by attacking rapidly dividing tumour cells. However, hair cells also divide rapidly so the drugs target them as well, which is what causes alopecia.

    ‘Hair is important, especially to women. Hair loss can really affect how a patient feels.

    ‘If you have a heart attack, you won’t look different, but if you have cancer and lose your hair, everyone knows what you are going through. Some people embrace it, but for others, having something so private made public is embarrassing.

    ‘Fear of hair loss has been known to make women avoid chemotherapy or try unproven alternative treatments, so it is good that we now have something proven to offer them.’

    The success of scalp-cooling is due to the low temperature causing the blood vessels to constrict, reducing circulation to the area.

    It is thought that this limits the uptake of toxic chemotherapy drugs by the hair follicles, protecting them from damage.

    During the trial, researchers enrolled 182 women with early-stage breast cancer who were due to undergo chemotherapy treatment and randomly assigned them into two groups: those who were to receive scalp-cooling for 30 minutes before chemotherapy, for the entire duration of the treatment and for 90 minutes after, and those who would not get the cooling.

    Overall, half (50.5 per cent) of those evaluated in the cooling group kept their hair, compared with no patients in the other group.

    Even in those who received anthracycline-based chemotherapy, which is almost always associated with hair loss, a quarter of the women avoided balding.

    Hair loss was graded in three stages – one meant no hair loss; two meant up to 50 per cent hair loss; and three meant more than 50 per cent loss.


    ‘Grade two is considered a success,’ said Dr Nangia. ‘It would appear to be thinning but not obviously. The majority of women on the trial who the treatment worked for suffered about a 30 per cent loss, and hair grows back after treatment ends.’

    The device used in the trial was the Orbis Paxman Hair Loss Prevention System, which comprises a refrigeration unit containing a coolant fluid that is circulated through a soft silicone cap. This is covered by a second cap made from neoprene, which is used in wetsuits.

    Sensors in the cap help to maintain a scalp temperature of between 18C and 22C, which, said the researchers, was essential for success.

    Another device, Dignicap, is also widely used and trials have produced similar results.

    ‘Prior to this, women were using a device that was essentially an ice pack. As it thawed, the temperature was uneven and this produced very patchy hair loss,’ added Dr Nangia.

    Scalp-cooling therapy is available on the NHS, and 90 per cent of hospitals in the UK have access to at least one machine. However, surveys suggest as few as one in ten are aware of the treatment. The device is not suitable for blood cancers such as leukaemia.

    There are about 2.5 million cancer patients in Britain, and that number is set to rise to four million by 2030. Breast cancer is the most common type suffered by women.



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    BBC Radio 4 presenter Kirsty Lang

    It was painful... but I kept my locks

    BBC Radio 4 presenter Kirsty Lang admits that after being diagnosed with breast cancer in May this year, one of her first concerns was whether she would lose her hair.

    ‘I had surgery to remove the tumour in my left breast, which was about the size of a 10p piece, and radiotherapy,’ said the broadcaster, who lives in West London with her journalist husband Misha Glenny and their son.

    ‘Chemo was recommended because the cancer had started to spread, but my consultant said I was a borderline case.

    ‘During that conversation, I admit that one of my first thoughts was about losing my hair. I’m not vain but I planned to keep working. Losing your hair is like having “I have cancer” tattooed on your forehead.

    ‘It’s not that I was embarrassed. I just didn’t want to be treated like a sick person.’

    Kirsty, host of arts show Front Row, was offered scalp-cooling to be carried out by a nursing assistant at the private LOC clinic in Harley Street, Central London, during each of her 12 weekly chemotherapy sessions.

    ‘He pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of a woman with thick brown hair and told me that she’d just finished having chemo, and explained that she’d used the cooling cap,’ Kirsty added. ‘Having the treatment involved wearing the cap for an hour before chemo, for the hour during, and for an hour afterwards.

    ‘It is painful, a bit like brain-freeze when you eat an ice cream – a sort of throbbing cold headache. The pain lasted for 20 minutes and I made sure I was talking to a friend or doing one thing to distract myself.

    ‘Keeping warm helped too, and I took to wrapping myself in one of those portable electric blankets.’

    After the seventh session Kirsty’s hair began to thin, and she estimates that she lost about 50 per cent.

    ‘I realise that picture of the woman with thick brown hair wasn’t the norm – I’ve been left with a bit of a bald patch on my crown, which has now started to grow back. If I have my hair up, you can’t really tell.

    ‘I have a wig for special occasions but I don’t wear it day-to-day. For me, the additional few hours and discomfort was absolutely worth it.’

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