Chemotherapy Hair Loss

You might not cautious about hair in your everyday life. But when you are facing with cancer and undergoing chemo the problem of hair loss becomes very dangerous. Both men and women are having this side effect. Hair loss is one of the severe side effects of chemotherapy. You loose noticeable amount of your hair during chemo. It gets thinner however does not give any other or different look. Sometimes all of your hair falls out that is called alopecia. Hair falls depends on type and dose of chemotherapy drug.

Causes of hair loss during chemotherapy

The hair loss during chemotherapy is called “Alopecia”. Chemotherapy drugs are very powerful drugs that directly attack the growth of cancer cells as well as other cells. Due to this hair follicle get damaged. Hair loss is not permanent side effect because there are more chances to grow it back after completion of chemotherapy. However, all drugs are not the reason or cause for hair loss. Some just cause thinning and some of them cause dramatic hair loss of body hair. Sometimes your eyelash, eyebrow, armpit, pubic and other body hair are also falls down. Process of hair loss may begin after few days from the start of treatment or within few weeks. However, you will gain your hair back after 3 to 6 months, but they are slightly different in color and texture of original ones.

There are two lists of drugs with their chemical names that cause hair loss permanently or temporally.

Following are some drugs that cause thinning or rarely complete hair loss:

• Asparaginase (Erwinase)
• Busulphan (Myleran)
• Carboplatin JM8 (Paraplatin)
• Bleomycin
• Capecitabine (Xeloda)
• Cisplatin
• Cytarabine
• Cladribine 2 CDA (Leustat)
• Chlorambucil (Leukeran)
• Cytarabine (Leukeran)
• Diacarbazine. (DTIC)
• Estramustin (estracyte}
• Fluorouracil 5-FU
• Gemcitabine (Gemzar)
• Hydroxyure. (hydran)
• Lomustine(DDcu)
• Melphalan (Alkern)
• Mercatoprine or 6 MP.
• Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin)
• Procarbazine
• Pentostatin(Nipent)
• Streptozocin (Zanosar)
• Raltitrexed (Tomudex)
• Thioguanine or 6TG (Lanvis)
• Thioetepa (Thioplex)
• Vinorelbine (Navelbine)
• Tegafur (Uftoral)

These drugs commonly cause hair thinning or complete hair loss and this is temporary side effect.

• Amsacrine (m-AMSA)
• Daunorubicin
• Cyclophosphamide ( Endoxana)
• Dactinomycin (Antinomycin D)
• Doxorubicin (Adriamycin)
• Docetaxel (Taxotere)
• Etoposide or V16 (Etopophos Vepesid)
• Epirubicin (Pharmarubicin)
• Ifosfamide (Mitoxina)
• Idarubicin (Zavedos)
• Mustine or Chlormethine
• Mitozantrone or mitoxantrone
• Topotecan (Hycamtin)
• Paclitaxel(Taxol)
• Vincristine (oncovin)
• Vindesine (Eldisine)

Prevention of hair loss

There is no guarantee that your hairs will not fall during or after treatment of chemotherapy. You have to plan ahead and have to focus on make comfortable yourself during and after cancer treatment with your appearance. There are many possible ways to prevent hair loss, but not that much effective. You can use scalp hypothermia and minoxidil to prevent hair loss during chemo.

Scalp hypothermia (cryotherapy): In this method, some ice packs and devices similar to that are placed on the head to slow the blood flow from your scalp. 50 to 80 percent of people are having good results of hypothermia going through chemotherapy. To recover your hair it requires 4 to 6 weeks from chemotherapy. There is possibility of hair growth with one inch for each month. However, the hairs grown in this period are different in color and texture from the hair you lost. They may be curly and gray but this change is temporary.

Minoxidil (Rogaine): This treatment speed ups growth of your hair. This method is useful for both men and women. It is acceptable before and during chemotherapy to prevent hair loss. Women specially having breast cancer needs to apply it twice a day through out and four months after their treatment.

When your hairs grow back you have to take extra care of them to keep them as it is. You may cover it and there are so many ways to cover it. When your hairs are at falling stage you can control the hair fall by using various ways. If you like a wig then you may use it after consulting with your chemotherapy nurse. She will help you to choose right color, type and style of wig. A wig is the great way however, it is not suitable or fancies to everyone. If you want a wig, which match your own hair color, type and style then you have to buy it early before your chemotherapy starts. In summer they bit hot. Use of hats and scarves is comfortable and good way to cover your head; it also protects us from sun rays and pollution. Also you may take help from resources nearby to your area to find out the perfect and safe cover for your head. There are some programs like “Look good and fill better” that gives information about cancer in women and provides hair and beauty makeovers. They offer classes for a teen having cancer and their web sites are made especially for men. These classes are held in United States as well as in other countries also.

You may do yourself to prevent hair loss

There are some things that a cancer patient must have to follow during his chemotherapy treatment.

• If your chemotherapy drugs are causing hair loss you should ask your doctor and nurse about it.
• Ask for a wig to doctors if it possible for them before your chemotherapy treatment. That will help you to match the color, type and texture of your original hair.
• You may think for short hair cut before you start your chemotherapy treatment.
• Use hair net to avoid hair fall on your pillow which may makes you upset.
• Use soft and gentle products for your hair instead of harsh products.
• Avoid colors and perms on thinning hair, which damages your hair.
• Dry your hairs naturally. Don’t use dryers, curlers and curling tongs on thinning hair.
• Don’t use hard brush and comb for your thinning hair. Soft baby brush is better for it.
• Some people don’t have any distress of seeing hair fall and they like to shave off their hair completely.
• If there is itching sense or flakes due to your scalp this means it is dry and you have to use moisturizer or oil to avoid it. Don’t use any anti- dandruff shampoo.

Chemotherapy Side Effects

It is true that chemotherapy kills cancer cells but it also damages healthy cells in our body. There are two types of side effects that are acute - short term side effects and chronic, which are long term side effects. There is great possibility of discomfort, inconvenience and even death.

Side effects of chemotherapy may include mouth sours, constipation, diarrhea, pain, hair loss, vomiting, nausea and the side effects related to blood.

Side effects to CBC

The CBC means complete cell count, which helps doctors to find out side effect of chemotherapy. Following are side effects related to blood:

• Anemia: Lower amount of red blood cells is the reason for anemia. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin or Hb that carries oxygen from lungs to muscles and organs of body. For the health of your tissues and organs, oxygen is very important factor. There are various options available to treat anemia. Red blood cell transfusions and erythropoiesis are two stimulating agents for increasing the amount of red blood cells in your blood.
• Neutropenia: It is scientific name for low infection fighting white blood cell count. If the amount of white blood cells in your body is slow your body may get harmed and you feel weak while taking doses of chemotherapy drugs in high quantity. At this stage your doctor reduces your dose until you reach at sufficient level.
• Thrombocytopenia: The scientific name for a low platelet count is ‘Thrombocytopenia’. There may be bruising and excessive bleeding due to low platelet count.

The above mentioned side effects related to chemotherapy are diagnosed through the CBC test.

Bone marrow suppression:
The bone marrow is the liquid found in the inner part of bones that plays an important role in production of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Bone marrow suppression is one of the most common side effects, in which bone marrow gets damaged.

Hair loss:
Some drugs used in chemotherapy may affect rapidly growing cells of hair follicle. There may be some changes like hair fall or your hair may become brittle and break off from the scalp. This is a temporary side effect prevented by taking medicines. The hair loss mostly depends on drug used for chemotherapy and the period of treatment. Some peoples may loose their complete hair or other may see thinning of their hair. There may be possibility of hair fall of eyebrows, eyelashes, body hair and pubic hair but it is less severe because of the less active growth of the hair follicles compare to the growth of hair on scalp. The hair loss during, or after the treatment is very common. Your hair may grow again after the completion of chemotherapy. However, hairs grown after chemotherapy have different color and texture than that of your original hair. There may be possibility of depression or loss of self-confidence due to hair loss.

Mouth and throat sores:
Some drugs used for chemotherapy may cause sores in mouth and throat. Stomatitis refers to the inflammation or sores in the mouth. Pharyngitis is the similar change in the throat and the change in esophagus are called as esophagitis. Pale and dry appearance of mouth lining is the first sign of mouth sores. There may be feeling of sore to mouth, throat and gums and it becomes red and inflamed. The tongue may have some problems like coating and swollen that leads to troubles like swollen, talking and eating. There may be other problems like bleeding, infection and painful ulcers due to stomatitis, esophygitis and pharyngitis. The sours to mouth, throat and esophagus are temporary that remain for 5 to 14 days after receiving chemotherapy.

Change in taste:
Due to the cancer and it’s treatments there may be change in taste of food, which can cause malnutrition, anorexia and weight change. The change in taste may cause more desire or dislike for sweet, tomato, tomato products, pork and beef or dislike for the food having bitter taste and feeling of medical taste in your mouth. There are receptor cells in our mouth that tell the flavor of the food you taste. The above mentioned changes occur because the changes are produced in the taste receptor cells due to chemotherapy. However, reasons like mouth infections, dentures, oral hygiene, unpleasant odors may also changes taste. These changes remain till your chemotherapy treatment is continuing or even longer.

Constipation:
This is the passage with discomfort of hard, infrequent, dry stool. There may be increase in gas, bloating, pain and cramping, when you have constipation.

Reasons for the constipation:

• Decrease in intake of food and low fiber food
• Lack of physical activity
• Complete bed rest
• Depression
• Some chemotherapy drugs

To avoid this you have to take food containing fibrous food and drink more water. Also you consult with your doctor and he will determine causes and treatments for your problems.

Change and loss in weight:
‘Anorexia’, may be caused by use of some chemotherapy medicines. It may be mild but if it severe then it may lead to ‘cachexia’, and causes malnutrition and wastage of muscles. The proper diet will help you to recover the body and provide strength to fight against disease and infection. Weight loss or appetite are temporary and we may gain weight after finishing chemotherapy treatment. There may be other reasons for weight loss like vomiting, diarrhea, appetite loss and side effects by drug. However, there may be other side effect like weight gain during cancer treatment. The reasons for this include inactivity, electrolyte imbalances, and fluid retention and chemotherapy regimens containing steroids.

Fatigue:
Fatigue is one of the most common side effects due to chemotherapy. You may experience certain feelings like weakness, lack of energy, weariness, problem to thinking and constipation, forgetfulness and decrease in mental and physical functioning. Fatigue is responsible for change and affects your health and quality of life. Your health care team can correct these physical causes and help to manage it.

Heart Damage:
1 to 10 % of people undergoing chemotherapy treatment suffer from heart damage, especially damage to heart muscles due to drugs like doxorubicin, daunorubicin, anthrcyclines and other drugs. This can lead to fluid build up and other problems and you may feel symptoms like shortness of breath, dry cough, swelling and puffiness in hands and feet, erratic heart beats etc.

Thinking and memory change:
The chemotherapy treatment may change the way of brain function. This change occurs after many years of treatment and very few numbers of people suffered by this disease. There may be affection to brain’s activity like concentration, comprehension or understanding, memory and reasoning.

Changes in nervous system:
There may be changes in central nervous system, peripheral or cranial nerves because of the chemotherapy drugs. Cranial nerves are very important for movement and touch sensation of head, neck and face that are connected directly to brain. These nerves are also important for the sense of smell, taste, hearing and vision. And the peripheral nerves are important in movement, regulating activities of internal organs and touch sensation. These side effects occur in the early phase of chemotherapy or even several years later.

You may feel following symptoms due to change in central nervous system.

• Headache
• Fever
• Sleepiness
• Confusion
• Depression
• Vomiting and nausea

Following are symptoms you feel after damage of cranial nerves:

• Decrease in sensation
• Tingling
• Numbness

Lung Damage:
Drug like bleomycin can damage your lung. Receiving the radiation to the chest along with the chemotherapy can increase the chances of lung damage. The age factor is also important to lung damage. Belomyacin can damage lungs of people who are 70 years old and above. The symptoms of lung damage are dry cough, shortness of breathing and fever. Lung damages are mostly permanent.

Types of Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a drug or chemical used to kill tumor cells. It also kills the healthy cells, which causes side effects. Wide varieties of anti cancer drugs are available into the market. These drugs differ in the manner how they attack cancer cells. These are taken orally, injected in the muscles or under skin or into the vein. He drugs are absorbed into the blood and circulated through out the body. For the chemotherapy treatment one or combination of drugs is used. However, there are various types of cancer those need different type of drugs that kill cancer cells in various ways at various phases in the cell cycle. The drugs selected for the treatment of chemotherapy are tested in clinical trials to prove to be most effective to destroy particular stages, types and grades of cancer. The other factors like age and tolerance of side effect are also important to select the chemotherapy drug. Chemotherapy is the process in which the combination of chemical and pharmaceutical are used to kill the cancer cells. The drugs like adriamycin, taxol, cisplatin, 5FU and others are used commonly. Chemotherapy treatment depends on the type and stage of the cancer.

Following are some types of chemotherapy:

Plant Alkaloids:
These are made up from certain type of plants found in nature. The bark of Pacific Yew Tree is used to make taxanes while for making vinca alkaloids, the periwinkle plant is used. Taxanes and vinca alkaloids are also known as antimicrotubule agents. The podophyllotoxins are obtained from the May apple plants. Camptothecan analogs are obtained from the Asian Happy tree. Plant alkaloids attack the cells during various phases of division because they are cells cycle specific. There are some plant alkloids such as docetaxel, taxens and paclitaxel and some vinca alkaloids that include vinblastine, vincristine and virorelbine.

Alkylating Agents:
In the resting phase of the cell the alkylting agents are most active. These cells directly damage DNA and prevent reproduction of cancer cell. It is very important to treat the various kinds of cancer. Following are some alkylating agents used in chemotherapy treatment.

• Alkylsulfonates: Busulfan
• Metal salts: Cispaltin, Carboplatin and Oxaliplatin.
• Ethylenimies: Hexamethylelmelamine and Thiotepa.
• Hydrazines and Triazines: Procarbazine, Altretamine, Dacarbazine and Temozolomide.
• Mustard gas derivatives: Mechlorethamine, Chlorambucil, Cyclophosphamide, Ifosfamide and Melphalan.
• Nitrosureas: Lomustine, Carustine, Streptozocin and Nitrosureas are unique and may cross blood brain barrier. These can also used to treat the brain tumors.

Anti-tumor Antibiotics:
These are the natural products produced by soil fungus streptomyces. These cells are considered as cell cycle specific and act during multiple phase of cell cycle. Following are few types of anti-tumor antibiotics.

• Chromomycins: Plicamycin and Dactinomycin.
• Anthracyclines: Mitoxantrone, Epirubicin, Doxorubicin, Idarubicin and Daunorubicin.
• Miscellaneous: Bleomycin and Mitomycin.

Anthracyclines:
Anthracyclines interfere with enzymes that are necessary for replication of DNA. Anthracyclines are cell cycle non specific and anti tumor antibiotic used to treat different kinds of cancer. The drugs like bleomycin, doxorubicin and mitomycin are examples of anthracyclines.

Topoisomerase Inhibitors:
These are various chemotherapy drugs that interfere with the action of toposiomerase enzymes. Topoisomerase enzymes also plays very important role in controlling the manipulation of DNA structure that is necessary for replication during chemotherapy treatment. There are few toposiomerase enzymes such as ironotecan, topotecan are included in topoisomerase I inhibitors and several enzymes like etoposide phosphate, amsacrine, etoposide and teniposide are included in topoisomerase II inhibitors.

Antimetabolities:
Antimetabolities are similar to normal substances present in the cell. Antimetabolities are the drugs that interfere with growth of DNA and RNA. These are cell cycle specific and kill cancer cells in a specific phase of cell division. Antimetabolities are unable to divide when cells incorporate normal substances into the cellular metabolism. The antimetabolitities are classified according to substances with which they interfere.

• Purine antagonist: 6-thioguanine and 6- Mercaptopurine
• Folic acid antagonist: Methotrexate.
• Pyrimidine antagonist: Foxuridine, Capecitabine, 5-fluorouracil, Cytarabine, and Gemcitabine.
• Adenosine deaminase inhibitor: Nelarbine, Fludarabine, Cladribine, and Pentostain.
  Mitotic Inhibitor

The cell division of cancerous cell is inhibited by mitotic inhibitor. These inhibitors work during the mitosis phase of cycle. These cells also interfere with the production of enzymes and it is necessary for cell reproduction.

Miscellaneous Antineoplastics:

• Enzymes: Pegaspargase and Asparaginase.
• Ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor: Hydroxyurea.
• Adrenocortical steroid inhibitor: Mitotane
• Retinoids : Baxarotene, Isotretinoin, tretinoin (ATRA)
• Antimicrotubule agent: Estramustine.

What is chemotherapy?

What is chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy is treatment of diseases like cancer with the help of some chemicals that kill fast growing cells. It also refers to those drugs which are used in the cancer treatment. Read more about what is chemotherapy.

How does chemotherapy works?
In simplest terms, chemotherapy works by destroying the fast growing (mostly cancerous) cells in our body with your use of some chemicals. But there are some other fast growing cell also in our body like red blood cells, white blood cells, hair cells. Chemotherapy can destroy them as well, so the process is carried with great precautions and with the help of other drugs. Read more about how does chemotherapy works and other details at chemotherapy related articles.

Chemotherapy is being used to treat various type of cancers like breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer and many other types of cancers.
Disclaimer: This website provides general information about chemotherapy and in no means should be taken as a medical or health advice. Please consult your doctor before acting on any of its information.