[gardengirl]

Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by gardengirl on Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:44 pm

Just read an article in New York Times about scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemo­ther­apy. It's nearing FDA approval.

Has anyone heard of this?

[mrozdav]

Re: Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by mrozdav on Wed Aug 12, 2015 10:36 pm

Gardengirl, There are quite a few women who are doing it in the chemo infusion room to which I go to get my Velcade injections. (I am located in Washington, D.C.)

[Boris Simkovich]

Re: Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by Boris Simkovich on Wed Aug 12, 2015 10:57 pm

Hi GardenGirl,

My mother underwent intensive chemo­therapy for breast cancer 25 years ago. It was carried out at her local oncologist's office in rural central Pennsylvania. I guess the oncologist was ahead of the curve, though, as he had several scalp cooling units in his office even back then. My mother didn't lose any hair during the chemotherapy.

She's also still alive today, by the way, having turned 80 this past December. The chemo, plus two mastectomies within a year's time, apparently did what they were supposed to do.

[torimooney]

Re: Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by torimooney on Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:28 am

I know of one woman with breast cancer who did the scalp cooling and still lost all her hair.

[Rhonda]

Re: Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by Rhonda on Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:19 am

I am getting ready to endure high dose chemo and don't want to lose my hair. Should I ask my BMT about this? or my oncologist? Does anyone know?

Thanks Rhonda

[mrozdav]

Re: Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by mrozdav on Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:30 am

I went for my Velcade injection this morning and took the opportunity to ask my nurse about the cooling cap. She said that its success rate depends on the drug regimen administered to the patient. She said that it does not seem to work for myeloma patients and our doctors routinely advise that it probably will not prevent hair loss. She said that the cooling caps needed to be rented from the company, Penguin Cold Caps, but that the practice has the freezer on the premises. The process is quite expensive, but she could not give me a monetary figure.

So wonderful to hear that Boris's mother used the cooling cap successfully so many years ago and that she is a long-time survivor of breast cancer. I got the impression from my attending nurse that the cooling cap is best when used for breast cancer patients, but even there the kind of drugs being used is the key to success.

Last edited by mrozdav on Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Eric Hofacket]

Re: Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by Eric Hofacket on Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:37 pm

I believe the principal behind how scalp cooling works is that it slows the metabolic rate of the cells that grow hair, so they are not as affected by the chemotherapy drugs, which work by targeting cells with high metabolic rates, like cancer cells. I can see where how effective this is would be greatly dependent on what types of drugs are being used and how aggressive the treatment is. At some point, I can see where aggressiveness and potency of the chemo drugs are simply going to over­come the effect of cooling the scalp.

Best of luck with this,

Eric

[Boris Simkovich]

Re: Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by Boris Simkovich on Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:45 pm

Thanks for the follow-up, Mrozdav, and for sharing with us what you learned.

I can't say I'm surprised that the success of the cooling varies depending on the treatment regimen the patient is using. I am surprised to hear that it is expensive, since the principle behind it is relatively simple.

Eric - I have the same intuition that you do regarding both how the cooling works and how the intensity of the treatment regimen affects whether the cooling will be effective in preventing hair loss. That said, my mother's treatment regimen was intense. It involved three or four traditional chemotherapies administered in high doses, once a month, for nine months. During the latter cycles, she actually had to be hospitalized several days after each dose of the chemotherapy because of the strong side effects she had.

[Eric Hofacket]

Re: Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by Eric Hofacket on Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:18 pm

Just thinking out loud ... I wonder, if scalp cooling works by slowing the metabolic rate of hair cells, brain cells also have a high metabolic rate. So I wonder if cooling the brain a little also would help with chemo brain.

[barryo]

Re: Scalp cooling to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy

by barryo on Sun Aug 16, 2015 8:31 am

Cooling constricts the blood vessels in the scalp and restricts blood flow to the hair follicles. Hair loss is reduced because less of the drug is able to reach the follicles. However, this also means that any myeloma cells in the blood vessels of the scalp will also be spared. As a consequence scalp cooling is generally not recommended for blood cancers such as myeloma.

See link below:
http://www.nhs.uk/ipgmedia/National/Macmillan%20Cancer%20Support/assets/Scalpcooling.pdf