by Scientists have developed a new technique that they call them a “powerful double weapon” to prevent cancer patients from losing their hair during chemotherapy.
The method combines scalp cooling – in which a patient carries a cold cap to reduce the hair loss due to the damage caused by the cancer medication, whereby a lotion includes the same antioxidants that can be found in red grapes.
The study, which was celebrated as a “milestone”, has also determined the optimal temperature for scalp cooling than most effective for storing hair.
Calcaps are used by some cancer patients during chemotherapy to minimize the amount of hair they lose.
The technology limits blood flow to the scalp, which reduces the amount of medication that reaches the hair follicles.
Now researchers at Sheffield Hallam University have found that the cooling of the scalp to 18 ° C prevent damage to hair follicles, while cooling at 26 ° C may not offer enough protection for hair collar cells.
The team has also shown how the combination of topical antioxidants with cooling can change “the ability of cooling to protect against hair loss.
Dr. Nik Georgopoulos, Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Transforming Lives Fellow at Sheffield Hallam, told PA news agency that he regarded hair loss as a “face of cancer”.
“The reason why people get hair loss is that there are these rapidly diverging cells at the base of the hair follicles that actually feel the toxicity of chemotherapy medication,” he said.
“Chemotherapy drugs are medication that quickly kill on visible cancer cells, but they cannot distinguish between cancer cells and quickly share normal cells in the body.
“At the base of our hair follicles there are these rapidly dividing cells or keratinocytes that grow constantly and ultimately form the actual hair.”
For the study published within the borders of pharmacology, hair follicles were isolated from the scalp and bred in the laboratory before being treated with chemotherapy to examine the effects.
“We show that they die,” said Dr. Georgopoulos. “The cells that share quickly and grow the hair die due to the toxicity of chemotherapy.
“But if you cool down, you are protected and I not only mean protected – prevents you from dying.
“When cooling is used while the hair follicles are bred in the laboratory, it can completely prevent the toxicity. However, there is a catch – you have to use the right temperature.”
While an optimal temperature was highlighted in the study, the researchers also combined cooling with the lotion as a potential goal for patients who may not react to the cold capsule technology.
It contained antioxidants such as resveratrol, which occurs in red grapes and peanuts and n-acetylcysteine, a nutritional supplement.
Dr. Georgopoulos said to PA: “Cooling works for some patients and not for others. Because some heads – I call them stubbornly – they don’t cool cool.
“By adding this topical product that delivers this antioxidant, we form a powerful double weapon that has shown us based on our results in the laboratory that it can change the ability to cool down to protect.”
Dr. Georgopoulos added that the antioxidant lotion was not “efficient enough” on its own.
“The reason for this is that cooling does several amazing things at the same time,” he said.
“What happens in the body when things get cold? You have the narrowing of your blood vessels, they narrow, less blood goes on the scalp, less drugs. It’s not so easy.
“Our research has shown that cooling slow down the cells and prevent them from sharing itself – protection.
“It stops chemotherapy drug – protection. It does several things at the same time if the cooling is optimal.
“If it is not optimal, our approach now enables us to say: ‘It’s okay, it is not an ideal scenario, but we compensate for it with our topical product.
Dr. Georgopoulos has been working with the scalp cooling of Paxman for more than a decade.
The Huddersfield-based company has created a device that circulates coolant by a specially designed cold cap, which is worn by the patient.
The chiller cap is worn half an hour before the start of chemotherapy, during treatment and up to 90 minutes after the administration of all medicines.
It is now to be hoped that the new technology that combines the scalp cooling with the antioxidants can be examined with the Paxman device with cancer patients. Researchers are currently completing the antioxidants used in the topical product.
Dr. Georgopoulos said: “Our ongoing work will ensure that the effectiveness is as high as possible with the conviction that a topical means not only dramatically improves the effectiveness of scalp cooling when protecting hair loss, but also significantly accelerates the treatment of hair frames after chemotherapy.”
