Tata Memorial starts trials to reduce chemotherapy hair loss

In a move that could benefit cancer patients, especially women, the city-based Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) has launched clinical trials to check if the use of a skull cap with cooling technology can reduce hair loss caused due to chemotherapy.
The technique is expected to restrict chemotherapy medication from affecting the scalp and thereby reducing hair fall.
The idea behind the experiment is to provide a psychological support to women, who go through the trauma of losing their hair. Already, women are under pressure after the diagnosis of cancer and such visible changes in appearance could worsen the situation, a medical officer of TMH, which is located in Parel in central Mumbai, said.

Talking to PTI, Dr Jyoti Bajpai, Associate Professor at Department of Medical Oncology at TMH, said, "We have selected four women patients suffering from breast cancer. They are in the early stage of diagnosis and the treatment has started. The women have agreed to take part in the experiment. We are keeping these women's record, which will be compared with other women with similar cases, who are not using the cooling scalp technology. If the results are positive, then it can be replicated across the country."
"Any woman goes through a lot of trauma because of such hair loss. The cooling scalp is already used in the UK widely. If our experiment brings good results, Indian women can also benefit out of it," she said.

Dr Bajpai is heading the trials with a huge team from various departments.

The machine has two scalp coolers with cooling technology that can keep temperature as low as -4 degree Celsius. The circulation of coolant in the scalp helps in reducing the overall temperature, to expose the human head to such low temperature.
"Chemotherapy has other side effects as well,
including lowering of blood count, but visible effect is on the hair loss. For women, it is huge one when it comes to hair loss. Some patients are found in two minds when they come to know that they realised that would lose their hair for some time as a part of their cancer treatment. Though it is a temporary phase of hair loss, for some it is no less than a shock," she said.

According to Dr Bajpai, the most common side-effects of using scalp coolers are headache and cold, but there has been no such complaint so far from the patients.
"Women participating in the trial will initially use the scalp cooler 30 minutes before starting chemotherapy and continue it for 90 minutes after it is completed. Medical officers are maintaining pictorial records to evaluate the scalp cooler's effect during every cycle for every patient.
"Trial subjects are asked to wash their hair well and not use hair oil on chemotherapy day, and their hair is covered with conditioner before the cap is put on. These measures are to avoid any other factors affecting the test results," Dr Bajpai said.