Chemotherapy and Hair Loss – What Can Be Done




Hair loss is a common side effect of chemotherapy that is applied to treat cancer patients. Despite the invention of new, gentler and safer drugs to treat malignant tumours, many cancer sufferers continue experiencing complete baldness when being treated. Can chemotherapy-induced hair loss be prevented? Scientists of the Glaxo-Wellcome Research and Development Center, North Carolina seem to have found a solution.


According to animal tests conducted by Dr. Stephen Davis and other scientists of the research center, a hair growth hampering gel has shown promising results in stopping baldness triggered by anti-cancer medications. Although the gel was originally designed to prevent hair growth, in laboratory mice and rats that were treated by potent anti-cancer drugs it has stopped the development of baldness. The gel was tested on chemotherapy-treated, newborn animals with human hair transplants. Results of the research have shown that the gel prevents both animal fur and human hair from falling out in the course of chemotherapy.

If this hair medication is proven safe for people, it may become a reliable solution to prevent the upsetting loss of hair that often afflicts cancer patients, the researchers reported for the journal Science.

Many cancer pharmaceuticals, especially those applied to kill metastatic tumours of the breasts, colon and lungs, still have a wide range of hazardous and just upsetting side effects, including baldness. These medications work by annihilating rapidly propagating cells. Since cancer cells divide fast, the chemotherapy approach often works successfully. Unfortunately, due to the fact that many healthy cells, such as those lining the gastrointestinal tract and composing bone marrow and hair follicles, also reproduce at a rapid rate, they are often being killed by chemotherapy medications, as well. As the result, cancer patients treated with potent drugs often experience such unpleasant side effects as nausea, indigestion and baldness.

The gel applied by the scientists works by stopping follicular cells from growing, which makes them unnoticeable for the chemotherapy drugs. As the result, the cancer drugs do not impose hair cell death. In addition, when used topically, the gel does not penetrate the body in huge amounts, thus making it theoretically safe to apply for the patient.

The scientists also suggest that the gel compound that hampers a rapid division of cells can be found beneficial to fight cancer itself, since it potentially can stop malignant tumours from fast spreading.

Richard Dunn

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Posted on June 19, 2008 
Filed Under Hair Loss News and Statistics, Hair Loss Treatments

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