Adding insult to injury, some of the very chemotherapy drugs used to eradicate breast cancer cells also cause countless women to lose their hair as they undergo treatment.
That’s because chemotherapy drugs are powerful chemical compounds specifically designed to attack rapidly growing cancer cells.
Unfortunately, they also attack other rapidly growing cells they encounter and some of the fastest growing cells in the human body just happen to be the epithelial cells that are part of hair follicles. Not surprisingly, certain chemo drugs find those cells every bit as inviting a target as cancer cells.
But there’s now a way to potentially put the brakes on those follicle-killing chemo drugs for a substantial number of patients.
According to Carrie Sansone, administrative assistant at the Scully-Welsh Cancer Center, the FDA has approved an updated device for “scalp hypothermia” for female breast cancer patients called a “Dignicap.”
This particular innovation is actually a modern update of a relatively old and simple concept. The idea is to keep the scalp (and therefore the hair follicles) cool. Or downright chilled. And while ice packs and ice bags were used in the past, this modern incarnation consists of a high-tech hood and console with built-in sensors and no messy drips and dribbles from melting ice packs.
By cooling the scalp to carefully calibrated levels, the Dignicap machine narrows the blood vessels beneath the skin which, in turn, reduces the volume of chemotherapy drugs that are able to reach the hair follicles.
The fewer chemo drugs in the follicles, the less likely those follicles are to die and therefore the less likely hair is to fall out.
Even this newest innovation, however, is not a sure thing for everyone.
The Journal of the American Medical Association cites a 66.3 percent success rate in avoiding hair loss in one multicenter study which, while impressive, means the treatment did not work the remaining one third of patients involved.
Why the machine works for some and not others is not exactly clear.
The American Cancer Society admits, “It can be hard to predict which patients will lose their hair and which ones won’t, even when they take the same drugs.”
And that’s where it gets really complex. Some chemo drugs are more likely to lead to hair loss than others.
The Journal of Clinical Oncology cites Hexalen, Paraplatin, Taxotere and Neosar as being among the chemo agents most likely to cause hair loss.
Asking your doctor or medical bariatric physician if the drugs prescribed for you are more or less likely to lead to hair loss is certainly an option but remember: He or she prescribed those drugs specifically as the best way to treat your particular type and stage of cancer.
Still, the possibility that up to two-thirds of breast cancer chemo patients might no longer have to face the added stress of losing their hair during treatments prompted Answer-to-Cancer co-chairs, Carole Plante and the late Donald Casey to take action.
In 2016, the local nonprofit raised $96,000 to fund the lease of a Dignicap machine for Scully-Welsh – and they didn’t stop with just the lease.
Sansone, who has 18 years of oncology work backing her up, explains the device’s manufacturer, Dignitana, charges $200 for each treatment, but Plante very proudly and emphatically states “nobody pays” at Scully-Welsh.
Answer-to-Cancer’s generous donation picks up the tab for those charges.
Plante, herself a 30-year cancer survivor, faced the disease a second time when her daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer up in Maryland and had to endure the emotional and psychological stress that hair loss can add to an already tough ordeal.
The Dignicap treatments, which just started here this January, can be something of an ordeal themselves. According to Sansone, “patients have to have [the device] on about an hour before their chemo starts, so we put it on while they’re getting their pre-meds. And then, depending on which chemo agent they’re getting, they have to sit between two and three hours after the chemo drugs are infused. So they could be here five or six hours.”
Still, as JAMA points out, “any intervention that can prevent or reduce the severity of chemotherapy-induced hair loss is sure to be eagerly welcomed by both patients and oncologists.”
For more information, contact the Scully-Welsh Cancer Center at 772-563-4673.
