Cooling and antioxidants can aid prevent hair loss during chemotherapy – fresh tests

The hair trip is one of the most fearful and traumatic side effects of cancer chemotherapy, both for patients themselves and their loved ones, because it can clearly represent the “face of cancer”.

For most patients, hair maintenance does not apply to vanity – it is about identity, dignity and control. Therefore, cooling the scalp or (cold hats), often worn during chemotherapy, have become an increasingly common view of cancer wards.

Chemotherapeutic drugs work by killing rapidly dividing cancer cells – unfortunately they cause toxicity to protect the rapid division of robust cells in our body, as in the roots of our hair. This leads to damage to hair follicles, and ultimately hair loss.

Automated cooling of the scalp devices They are used to chilly the scalp just before, during and for a miniature time after chemotherapy. Our previous research He showed that cooling works through several mechanisms. It reduces blood flow to the scalp, which means that less the drug reaches the hair follicles.

It reduces cell activity and metabolism, which causes hair cells to react less often to chemotherapy. In addition, cooling directly stops the drugs in front of the entrance to the bubble cells. But despite its potential, cooling the scalp does not work for all patients. Until now, we didn’t really know why.

Our new research It shows that temperature precision can be of fundamental importance for cooling the scalp to prevent hair loss. In the laboratory, we used human hair follicles grown as “mini organs” to simulate what happens during chemotherapy.

When we treated hair bubbles with chemotherapy, we found that cooling, quite unusual, can prevent the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs. However, there is a catch: it works only when the hair follicles are cooled at the appropriate level. If not, protection is not suitable for “saving” them against toxicity of chemotherapy.

More precisely, after cooling to an optimal temperature of 18 ° C, hair follicles were completely protected against damage caused by chemotherapy. However, when the temperature was higher – say, 26 ° C – protection has dropped dramatically. This discovery can explain why cooling the scalp does not work for all patients. In the settings in the real world, the temperature of the scalp may differ due to the differences in the equipment, the shape of the head, blood flow or hair type. Some patients may not reach the “protective threshold”.

But here is an exhilarating part: if the temperature is not chilly enough, we found a way to compensate for this by adding antioxidants, and this makes a huge difference. Together, cooling and antioxidant create a sturdy protective combination – offering hair follicles a powerful, double layer of defense.

So how do antioxidants aid? Chemotherapy drugs produce harmful molecules called reactive forms of oxygen or ROS, which contribute to cell damage. By adding antioxidants such as N-acetylocysteine ​​or Resveratrol-Nawet at non-optimal cooling temperatures-we have signed an extraordinary improvement in protection. In fact, the combined effect of antioxidants and moderate cooling imitated protection observed with optimal cooling.

Although our study was conducted in the laboratory, it paves the way to improve results in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Discoveries suggest that the combination of antioxidants with existing scalp cooling can make treatment more reliable and available.

We are now developing local antioxidant treatment designed to reach the sensitive parts of the hair follicles in the scalp. The idea is to apply this balm when cooling the scalp to escalate the defense of the bubbles. Clinical trials are planned to test this combined approach in patients.

Our fresh tests are a milestone, because with the aid of antioxidants we can now be able to offer effective hair protection on the back of the scalp cooling-if the conditions are not ideal. The combinatorial approach is based on more than a decade of research on how chemotherapy damages hair – and how you can stop it.

Hair loss during chemotherapy is deeply disturbing. If we manage to improve the tools that we already have, such as cooling the scalp, and make them work better for more people, we can aid keep not only hair, but dignity, normality and quality of life in an extremely complex time.

The future of supporting carcinoma does not only apply to the treatment of the disease. It is also about helping people feel like themselves and maintain their dignity during the fight. This fresh approach can “change the face of cancer” in patients around the world.