Understanding Hair Loss During Chemotherapy

Generally people have a large fear of cancer since it is a malignant disease that can lead to death quickly if not treated or managed properly. There ...


Generally people have a large fear of cancer since it is a malignant disease that can lead to death quickly if not treated or managed properly. There has been countless of clinical studies on cancer which resulted in positive outcomes. One area of cancer research that has beneficial results is chemotherapy treatment. Chemotherapy is a form of cancer treatment where strong medication is given internally in order to eradicate malignant cancer cells. These cancer cells are quite dangerous since they quickly develop inside the body and displace normal cells which subsequently causes bodily imbalance inducing systemic organ failure.

Even though chemotherapy has been well documented to be one of the primary choices for cancer treatment, it has been known to also cause some adverse effects. Hair loss is a side effect of chemotherapy that patients planned to receive this procedure dread. One common question cancer patients ask their physicians is the correlation of hair loss and chemotherapy. Basically, hair loss during chemotherapy can be explained simply by the eradication of quick developing and growing cells in the body.

Chemotherapy drugs are specifically developed to eradicate fast developing malignant cancer cells in the body and regrettably these drugs cannot tell the difference between the fast growing normal cells found in hair and the malignant cancerous ones. Subsequently these drugs eradicate both normal and malignant cells without any difference.

Sometimes a patient is diagnosed with cancer in a very late stage thus requiring extensive treatment. During this extensive treatment usually high levels of chemotherapy drugs are given which in turn causes a quicker rate of healthy cells to be eradicated besides the malignant cells compared to other areas of the body, hair follicle cells have a quicker rate of regeneration which causes it to be an exact target for chemotherapy drugs. The amount of chemotherapy administered correlate with the rate of hair loss. High intensity chemotherapy is damaging for hair cells, on the other hand, if low intensity chemotherapy is administered a large percentage of hair cells can be salvaged. Total hair loss is the direct result of extended chemotherapy sessions over long periods of time. Limited hair loss can be seen in less serious cases plus most of the lost hair can regenerate in a short period of time. Hair loss during chemotherapy is certainly a major problem for cancer patients.

Patients suffering from hair loss due to chemotherapy nowadays should not be worried. Patients with hair loss do not have to receive medication to regenerate hair growth because it is a temporary side effect. There are several ways to conceal their baldness such as using fashionable wigs. Patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy that experience severe hair loss can choose to go to through hair loss treatments. On a positive note, patients experiencing hair loss do not have to seek special hair growth treatment since the conventional methods of treatment will do wonders to manage their chemotherapy hair loss problem.

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv Enabled