One of the concerns that accompanies patients who will start chemotherapy treatment is hair loss. This is a legitimate desire – after all, hair represents a person’s identity and is closely linked to vanity and well-being.
There is a procedure that helps prevent or minimize this hair loss by up to 70%. This is cryotherapy, a method of cooling the scalp that reduces blood flow through the contraction of the vessels present there. With this, the amount of chemotherapy that reaches the cells of the hair follicles is smaller.
Cold also reduces the activity of hair follicles and makes them less attractive to chemo, which now targets rapidly dividing cells. This would reduce the effect of chemotherapy on the cells in the hair follicles and, as a result, prevent hair loss.
Cryotherapy in practice
Thirty minutes before the chemotherapy session, the patient wears a special cap, called hypothermic cap, which cools the scalp to a temperature between 18°C and 22°C and keeps it stable, reducing the risk of drug absorption in this region.
The individual must remain with it for about an hour and a half after the end of the infusion, depending on the adopted protocol.
Some studies that evaluated the use of hypothermic caps showed benefits. At least half of women with early-stage breast cancer who used a cap during chemotherapy lost less than 50% of their hair. In addition, the researchers observed that patients who used cryotherapy had a faster growth in the volume of hair lost compared to those who did not use the method.
It is believed that the results of cryotherapy are also related to the type of chemotherapy drugs used, their dosage and the person’s tolerance to cold.
There is even evidence that individuals who use cryotherapy during treatment and have a thicker layer of hair are more prone to hair loss than those with a thinner layer. This may be due to the scalp not cooling down sufficiently – the hairs present there have an insulating effect.
Another important issue to be observed is the placement of the cap. She needs to be well adjusted to the head, staying in contact with the scalp, so that her action is adequate.
The adverse effects most commonly associated with the use of the cryotherapy cap are headache (headache), neck and shoulder discomfort, chills, and scalp tenderness.
