Cancer patients can avoid hair loss during chemo with this unusual technique

Chilled out

My friend Natalie recently found out she has breast cancer.

I knew her first chemo session was coming up, so I sent her a note to tell her I was thinking of her and to let me know if I could help out in any way.

Natalie is a strong and optimistic person, so I know she’s going into this with a can-do attitude. Still, I was a little surprised that her response to my note was remarkably positive. She clearly wasn’t dwelling on whatever anxieties she might have been feeling.

In fact, she was thinking about you.

That is to say, she passed along some intriguing information she hoped might be helpful to any e-Alert readers — perhaps like yourself — who are about to go into a battle against cancer on one hand, and the daunting side effects of treatment on the other.

Hair today, still here tomorrow

On the eve of her first treatment, Natalie heard about a product designed to help patients keep their hair during chemo. (By the way, neither Natalie, nor I, nor HSI are involved in the sale of this product in any way.)

I copied and pasted Natalie’s email for you…

“Here’s something I just found out about that you may have already heard of — too late for me but it may help others — Penguin Cold Caps. They help minimize or prevent hair loss from chemo.

“They’re essentially super cold ice packs that you wear on your head during chemo. Freezes the hair bulbs or follicles so that the chemo drugs can’t get to them.

“The issue is that a normal freezer doesn’t keep them cold enough. I don’t remember the exact temp, but it needs to be super cold. Dry ice will work. But since I need them tomorrow, I won’t have time to have them shipped and cooled. And you really need them for each treatment.

“My neighbor told me about this. He works for Kenra, the hair care company, and they sponsor something called the Rapunzel Project which donates the special freezers to infusion centers so that people can keep their caps there when they’re having treatment and don’t have to pack coolers full of dry ice.

“At least I’m learning a lot.”

But there was even more to learn when Natalie talked to her oncologist about using the Cold Caps. He explained what he called “a theoretical problem.”

Chemotherapy basically bathes the cells of the body so that the drug reaches cancer cells wherever they might be. Cold Caps block chemo access to hair follicles by constricting blood vessels in the scalp. That decreases blood flow AND the flow of chemo.

But in rare cases, cancer recurs in skin nodules on the scalp. So theoretically, the scalp would be at risk if any cancer cells were hiding there.

That said, her oncologist had no problem with using the Cold Caps. He just wanted her to understand the risk, even though it’s apparently very small.

Of all the side effects of chemo, hair loss may be the least medically significant, but it has the effect of constantly reminding you that you’re a cancer patient. So finding a way to keep your hair may not only make you feel better about how you look, but also have a positive impact on your health and well-being.

If you or someone you care about is beginning a fight with cancer, take a few minutes to see whether this option makes sense for you.

You can find more information about Penguin Cold Caps and the Rapunzel Project at rapunzelproject.org.