[Magdalen] Cold caps in chemotherapy

[Sally Davies]

Seems it works best with weekly sessions. The patient took the caps with
her (and her husband to help change them), and made sure that the scalp was
cooled up to an hour before the chemo. Then kept it cold for several hours
afterwards - a lot of changing caps.

You can tell it is working because hair elsewhere falls out but not on the
head!

I'm not sure how I would feel about it but for a lot of people going
through cancer tx, it's about privacy first and foremost.  You can choose
who gets to give you sympathetic looks - and if you run a business you
don't have deal with worried quizzing from clients who are rattled that
you're sick.

There are some limits - it only works for solid tumours, not blood cancers
as it could allow cancer cells to escape. And would be less likely to work
with high doses of chemo or extended treatment periods.

This patient went to a great deal of trouble, she even had the dry ice
brought in from up-country!

So not for everyone and some might not feel empowered by a battle to save
their hair - but others will and with cancer treatment small victories are
important!

The treatment has been available in Europe and in Canada for a long time
now (15 years or so) but has only recently been studied in the USA. If FDA
approval is given it will no doubt be offered more routinely to those who
want it.



Sally D

On Wednesday, August 19, 2015, Eleanor Braun <eleanor.braun at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Having just finished chemo five months ago, this is the first I've ever
> heard of cold caps.
>
> We're the six sessions daily or weekly?  Mine were weekly, and of course
> the chemo stays in the body well after the session is done. A friend who
> had a different chemo said the hair would start coming out 19 days after
> the chemo started,and she was right.
>
> Sounds like a lot of work, knowing the hair will grow back.
>
> Eleanor
>
>
> On Wednesday, August 19, 2015, Sally Davies <sally.davies at gmail.com
> <javascript:;>> wrote:
>
> > Dear Pub friends
> >
> > I have an interesting assignment from my sister, to write a piece on her
> > website about cold cap treatment which is a strategy for preventing hair
> > loss during chemotherapy.
> >
> > I just spoke to a former patient who did that and managed to save her
> hair
> > - which was long and still is!
> >
> > It involved quite a rigmarole, they had to get Dry Ice in (from
> elsewhere)
> > for the caps, change caps every twenty minutes on "chemo day" and ensure
> > that any skin not already protected by hair (such as the ears) was
> covered
> > to prevent frostbite!
> >
> > But after six sessions of chemo - lovely natural hair. This patient had
> > been through chemo baldness before, as a teenager, and had been
> traumatised
> > by it so she was highly motivated to manage the cold caps
> >
> > Not for everyone I'm sure and perhaps wouldn't even work for everyone,
> but
> > she says that overseas (US/UK) chemo treatment facilities offer the caps
> > routinely and even have specialised apparatus for fast freezing them.
> >
> > Has anyone in the Pub come across these? And if so, did they work or was
> > the head-freezing just useful as a distraction during an awful time in a
> > person's life?
> >
> > Sally D
> >
>