New therapy helps protect your hair from chemo
It may be time to burn those bandanas and wigs for good!
If you or a loved one has suffered through chemotherapy, you know what a physical and emotional toll it can take. And I know you’ll never forget the first time a giant clump of your beautiful hair fell out in your hands.
But that never needs to happen again — not for you, nor for anyone else fighting cancer. Because a remarkable technology called “cold cap therapy” has been proven to help you survive chemo without losing your hair.
It’s a breakthrough treatment from Europe that I first told HSI readers about four years ago.
And now it’s getting ready to make landfall, right here in America.
When she first signed on for chemo to treat breast tumors, she figured her long silver locks were a goner.
But that’s when she and her husband learned about a trial for cold cap therapy being conducted at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in New York. Donna was able to keep all of her precious hair — and she didn’t have to make it obvious to the world that she was battling cancer.
And now you or someone you love could be next to take advantage of cold cap therapy. The FDA has just approved it for the first time ever for women with breast cancer.
Here’s how it works. You’re fitted with a super-cold, tight-fitting cap that chills your hair follicles to the point where they’re largely unaffected by chemo drugs, or by the narrowing of the blood vessels that lead to your scalp.
You know I’m not a big fan of chemotherapy. It targets your cancer cells and healthy cells alike — especially rapidly dividing cells, like your hair follicles.
But studies have shown that cold cap therapy prevents hair loss in up to 90 percent of cases.
Now, as I told you, the clinical trials and FDA approval in America focused on breast cancer. But cold cap therapy has been used in Europe for years for all different types of cancer.
And I don’t know what took the FDA so long to sign off on the therapy here — especially when it approves new cancer drugs at the speed of light. But it’s heartbreaking to think of all the people who needlessly suffered through the trauma of losing their hair while waiting for this treatment to become available.
Now some docs have voiced concerns that cold cap therapy might allow cancer to metastasize on the scalp or skull, even though research (including a German study two years ago) found nothing to back that up. Still, it’s not recommended for blood cancer patients.
But that still leaves millions of people who could benefit. People like Eileen Bruno, who kept her hair after she was accepted into a clinical trial for cold cap therapy at Weill Cornell Breast Cancer Center in New York.
“Knowing I was going to lose my hair was an awful thing for me,” she said. “I was really struggling with the fact that not only was I sick, but I was going to have to look sick to myself and the rest of the world.”
Dr. Tessa Cigler, an oncologist at Weill Cornell, calls the treatment “really empowering” and something that can protect your “sense of well-being during a really difficult time.”
And that’s priceless if you ask me.
Cold cap therapy is going to be coming soon to cancer treatment centers all across America — and if you’re going through chemotherapy, make sure you ask for it.
And if you’re not, please take a moment to forward this email to anyone you know who may be fighting cancer. Sadly, we all know someone.
Remind them that bald is still beautiful — but it’s just not necessary any more.
Sources:
“FDA clears cold cap to save hair during breast cancer chemo” Associated Press, December 8, 2015, Fox News, foxnews.com
