Hair Loss from Cancer Treatment May Indicate Likely Survival

added 20th March 2015

A new study published in the European Journal of Cancer has found that losing hair during chemotherapy may be an indicator of improved survival rates in ovarian cancer patients.

Chemotherapy hair loss may indicate survivial rates in cancer patientsChemotherapy causes hair loss when the chemicals it employs to fight cancer cells also attack the hair follicles. Many patients have noted how the physical sign of losing their hair to cancer, is one of the hardest struggles they face. Although treatments like cold caps may help to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy, this new information may mean that hair loss actually equals hope for patients.

According to the study’s lead researcher, Jalid Sehouli, “This is the first time an association of alopecia with chemotherapy response rates and survival in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer has been revealed.”

The breakthrough discovery found that, of the 5,000 epithelial ovarian cancer patients observed undergoing six cycles of chemo treatment, the 92% who experienced hair loss within the first three cycles of platinum and taxane-based chemotherapy had improved survival rates.

Further research is needed to confirm and expand upon these findings as the team admitted to limitations during this study. This was due to 5% of all participants not experiencing grade two alopecia, as well as the possibility that the final analysis may have under or over-reported patients’ hair loss.

“Even though our results are important and serve to further enlighten the associations between toxicity and efficacy of cytotoxic chemotherapy, the exact underlying mechanisms and pathways can only be speculative,” said Sehouli.

In addition to this latest research, other clinical studies are underway exploring how DNA-based cancer treatments can be developed to make hair loss from chemotherapy a thing of the past.

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