Permanent Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia in Patients with Breast Cancer: A 3-Year Prospective Cohort Study

    August 2018 in “ ˜The œoncologist ”
    Danbee Kang, Im Ryung Kim, Eun Kyung Choi, Young Hyuck Im, Yeon Hee Park, Jin Seok Ahn, Jeong Eon Lee, Seok Jin Nam, Hae Kwang Lee, Ji Hye Park, Dong Youn Lee, Mario E. Lacouture, Eliseo Güallar, Juhee Cho
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    TLDR Some breast cancer patients still experience hair loss three years after chemotherapy, especially with taxane-based treatments.
    In a prospective cohort study involving 61 breast cancer patients at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, Korea, it was found that permanent chemotherapy-induced alopecia (PCIA) occurred in 42.3% of participants three years after chemotherapy. The study, which measured hair volume and density before and after treatment, revealed that taxane-based chemotherapy regimens were more likely to result in PCIA. The most common hair-related issues at the three-year mark were hair thinning (75.0%), reduced hair volume (53.9%), hair loss (34.6%), and graying (34.6%). The findings suggest that PCIA is a significant and distressing side effect of adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer, highlighting the need for clinicians to be aware of this issue and to provide appropriate counseling and supportive care to mitigate its impact on patients' quality of life.
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