Preventing Chemotherapy-Induced Hair Loss
There are very few options that offer significant success in preventing hair loss from chemotherapy drugs. Experts paint a rather dismal picture, explaining there simply is no drug that currently can overcome the two main obstacles in treating chemotherapy-induced hair loss:(160)
- Any treatment to counteract the hair loss cannot compromise the effectiveness of the chemotherapy treatment.(160, 161)
- Cancer treatment regimens often involve more than one chemotherapy drug. This means any medicine designed to prevent hair loss has to be able to counteract the effects of multiple drugs. The most successful preventive therapy would theoretically work across the main four classes of chemotherapy drugs.(160, 161)
Scientists performing the latest research look to understand the specific mechanisms by which chemotherapy drugs induce hair loss. This may enable them to find agents that are effective against a broad spectrum of chemotherapy drugs that operate by these same mechanisms.(161)
Research Suggests Some Treatments to Help Reduce Thinning Hair Caused by Chemotherapy
In the meantime, studies suggest there is plenty to be hopeful about. The 2 most well-researched methods showing some success at preventing or reducing thinning hair, or at least helping to quickly regrow hair lost to chemotherapy, include:
- Topical treatments may be a promising method to overcome the concern that some systemic treatments might interfere with treatment drugs. Although there is still not a single treatment that can counteract the hair loss effects of all chemotherapy drugs, some topical drugs do offer protection against multiple drugs. These include topical calcitriol (a vitamin D analog) and cyclosporine A. And although minoxidil did not prevent thinning hair from chemotherapy, clinical studies show it does reduce the time it takes to regrow hair.(161-163)
- Scalp cooling has been extensively studied and results suggest it successfully prevents chemotherapy hair loss in over 60% of cancer patients.(4)
Other methods that showed promising results but have fewer published study results include:
Tourniquets
Reducing blood flow to the scalp follicles during chemotherapy administration helps limit the amount of toxic exposure and damage. Although not recently reported as in use, studies suggest tourniquets worked well when used with the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin.(4)
Electrotrichogenesis
Research suggests using pulsed electrostatic field could prevent chemotherapy hair loss in pregnant cancer patients.(4)
Herbal Help to Regrow Hair
Herbal ointments could help regrow hair lost to chemotherapy faster. Preclinical studies suggest certain herbs (such as fenugreek, ginseng, and giant dodder) have the following beneficial properties:(443-445)
- Antioxidant power
- Block harmful proteins stimulated by chemotherapy
- Hormone-regulating properties
All of these properties can help promote hair growth by protecting hair follicle cells from free radicals and DHT while boosting blood flow.(443-445)
In a clinical trial, one Chinese herbal medicine (made from tongguan vine) significantly reduced the severity of hair loss in breast cancer patients. The participants had been treated with docetaxel and adriamycin chemotherapy drugs.(446)
Systemic Immunomodulatory Drugs
An unexpected outcome of a small clinical trial for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer with AS101 may offer a promising option to prevent hair loss. With very little toxicity, significantly fewer of those treated with AS101 had severe hair loss. While 62% of than those treated with chemotherapy alone had severe alopecia, only 17% of those who also received AS101 had that much hair loss. Even more impressive was the fact that the AS101 group took 100% of the scheduled chemo treatments while the chemo-only group received only 20% of scheduled chemo doses.(163)
Interestingly one of the side effects was bad breath that smelled like garlic—a symptom associated with selenium toxicity. AS101 is a synthetic form of tellurium, which is in the same chemical family as selenium. Selenium is an essential nutrient for hair growth (though excessively high levels of selenium are linked with hair loss).(32, 35, 163, 164)
In animal studies, another drug called imuvert also showed the unexpected (but fortunate) side effect of reduced hair loss caused by certain chemotherapy drugs. Imuvert did not protect against hair loss caused by cyclophosphamide alone. However, when combined with supplemental N-acetylcysteine it did work to reduce hair loss caused by the combination of cyclophosphamide and cytarabine.(163)