All You Need To Know About Hair Loss

Archive for the ‘Chemotherapy Hair Loss’ Category

My dad has a type ofskin cancer, and he has to take a chemotherapy. Its in cream form. Will he lose his hair?
Sorry….the drug is called Efudex.

He might lose portions of his hair for a short time. This type hair loss will not be comparable to the mass hair loss experienced after IV chemo. Side effects from Efudex can be dialed back by simply skipping a day or two of applications if your skin gets too painful. Efudex makes your skin bright red, a little tender and some scaling as treatments progress. Efudex is highly effective for actinic keratosis, small basal and squamous cells. Make sure and wear sunscreen and a wide brimmed hat while his face is inflamed and afterward because second skin cancers become more likely after the first ones are cured.

http://www.chemocare.com/bio/efudex.asp

My mother has a breast cancer. She went through the lumptectomy surgery twice to remove cancer. The infilterating cancer was very small 0.7cm (but DCS was 2cm). The report indicated negative for the lymph nodes and margin. But HER-2NIU test was positive. Then the doctor recommended Oncotype Assay test which revealed her score of 52, considered high for aggressiveness that means 34% chance of recurrence within next 10 years.

She has to decide between radiation therapy and chemotherapy. She is very scared of drugs and its side affects including hair loss etc.
Doctor says chemotherapy should help her in this case.
She is 65 years old. Is this a good treatment for her? Is there any other alternative treatment that is equally good that we can consider?

Please help us with your knowledge.

Hi A-Man

There is always another way, but what are people willing to do is another question. Cancer is just another disease with the body in a toxic state level higher than other diseases. You can cure it, but one has to have an open mind and look for answers outside the medical field. Modern medicine only suppress’ the symptoms to other locations in the body, it never truly heals it.

Cleansing the body is a method Ive seen done many times with success and it doesn’t matter how old you are. Must remove the toxins in the blood. One strategy is detoxifying with herbs, water, and juice fasting. One must educate himself on the subjects Ive mentioned and there are plenty of good cleansing techniques out there. Here are a few websites and their programs I recommend.

“Benjamin Franklin – "The best of all medicines are rest and fasting

herbdoc.com
naturalcures.com

Best of health to both of you

Here

I know that not everyone on Chemo has hair loss. I am just wondering if the length of time receiving Chemo increases a persons chances of suffering from hair loss. I’m sure that it does, but I’m curious as to how long it may normally take after starting Chemotherapy. I will be starting radiation in four days and starting Chemo in six days so I have alot of questions about others experiences. I know that hair loss can be a very sensitive subject for some people so I hate even asking. I just feel like I need to know all that I can and I would prefer to hear from others who have actually experienced Radiation and or Chemo. Thank you.
The Chemotherapy I will be given weekly is called, Cisplatin and hair loss is a possible side effect.

We noticed hair loss about the second week, just a little bit. The third week a little more, at that time I made an appointment to get a wig for my wife. By the end of the fourth week it was coming out pretty good. The place we got the wig specialized in cancer patients and said we should just shave off the rest of her hair.

We were on Adriamycin and Cytoxin.

The insurance covered 100% of the wig, and it was expensive. It was 100% Virgin Russian Human Hair. Cost was about $2,300.

Hair started to grow back after about a month at last chemotherapy treatment. At first it was just a shinny fuzz barely visible. After 3 months from last chemotherapy treatment her hair is about two inches in length, but has grown back in nice curls. Before she had straight hair. And it is a little gray.

Side note:

A combination of chemotherapy and radiation is very hard on your body both physically and emotionally. Prepare yourself and treat yourself kindly during this difficult time you will soon be going through.

Pamper yourself, and have others help you. Take my advice…If anyone asks if they could help, take them up on it. All chores will seem like a lot during this time.

If they offer to do housework let them. If they want to do yard work, show them where the garage is. If they want to grocery shop for you and cook meals…take them up on it.

Whatever help you can get, take advantage of it. You are now carrying the Cancer card….use it for all it’s worth!

Good luck and we will be wishing you the best! You have friends here!!

Dave

Many of the drugs used in chemotherapy cause loss of hair in the individual being treated. why such drugs affect hair growth.

Chemo drugs are targeted at cells that replicate quickly. Cancer cells replicate quickly but other body cells do as well. Bones, hair, and mucous membranes (especially those in your mouth, esophagus and stomach) all replicate quickly. Hence the immune system suppression (bone marrow), hair loss and vomiting.

5-Fluoro-uracil (5-FU) is a drug commonly used in chemotherapy treatment of cancer. Cancer cells are usually very fast growing cells; other cells in your body, which are also fast growing, are bone marrow cells (which produce red and white blood cells) and hair follicle cells (which produce hair). Suggest why 5-FU can be a good treatment for cancer. Also, describe why 5-FU has side effects of low blood counts and hair loss.

5-FU is an anti-metabolite which means it resembles a naturally occurring nuclear structural component. After being converted to its active form in the body, 5-FU is competes with deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP) for the enzyme thymidylate synthetase. The binding of 5-FU to thymidylate synthetase prevents the cell from producing thymidine and consequently thymine (one of the four base pairs of DNA) resulting in decreased DNA synthesis, imbalanced cell growth and cell death. 5-FU is also inhibits RNA synthesis by acting as an analog for uracil. DNA and RNA synthesis is necessary for cell replication so the faster a cell duplicates the more affected it will be. As you stated, cancer cells are usually very fast growing cells. This makes 5-FU a good treatment for cancer since it slows or prevents tumor growth. However, chemotherapy drugs not only affect cancer cell but all cells in the body. Therefore, 5-FU also has a significant impact on other fast growing cell such as bone marrow and hair follicles resulting in low blood counts and hair loss.

I’m 17, male and have just bought a wig to cover this loss of hair as I’m going through chemotherapy. Can you tell me, and please don’t give me immature answers, if this looks "realistic" or "stylish" for a wig. It means a lot to me because I don’t want to look stupid when I have to go out.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=170363672970#ebayphotohosting

Thanks.
I have black hair and fairly pale white skin.

actually this wig is awesome! it really looks good! very natural!!!!
good luck !:)

And if so can anyone tell me what medications do besides chemotherapy?

Since cancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells, chemo targets or attacks fast growing/dividing cells. Hair cells divide fast and are fast growing, and so are sperm cells, which is why chemo can make your hair fall out and render you sterile for a while.

I can’t tell you any other cancer medications off the top of my head, but I’d imagine that the same principle would apply. Cancer medications would probably be intended to slow down or halt the rapid, uncontrolled cell growth, and hair loss would be a probable side effect.

My research topic is:
Why does chemotherapy cause hair loss?
No, I don’t need specific info on THAT topic.
After the research paper is written we will have to create an experiment based on that criteria.
Could anyone give me any ideas based on that topic of what to do for an experiment?

Track chemotherapy patients before and after chemo and patients who didn’t have chemo in the same time. Find some way to quantify how much hair they have and compare.

my sister has breast cancer, they did a lumpectomy and will be doing radiation in the right breast 5 days a week for 6 weeks. does hair loss happen with this kind of treatment? or is it just with chemotherapy? Thankyou for your help

No it doesn’t. Radiation/radiotherapy only causes hair loss when it’s to a part of the body that has hair, such as the head.

Radiotherapy to the chest won’t cause hair loss. It’s chemotherapy that often causes hair loss – not always, depends on the drugs used.

Best wishes to your sister

The two most common treatments for cancer are chemotherapy and radiation therapy. These treatments typically result in hair loss and/or nausea. Given that the cells of the hair follicles and the cells of the gastrointestinal lining reproduce rapidly, what can you say about the mode of action for these therapies?

Chemotherapy & radiation therapy target rapidly dividing cells because one of the major characteristics of cancer cells, is their contstant reproduction. As a side effect, other naturally fast dividing cells in the body are also dammaged, such as gastrointestinal epithelia, and hair folicle cells.