Hair Loss Prevention by a Scalp Cooling Device in Early Breast Cancer Patients: The Poliambulanza Preliminary Experience

摘要

Background: The most effective agents in the treatment of breast cancer have a commonside effect, the hair loss. Some studies reported a reduction of hair loss with the use of the scalp coolingdevice. Indeed, it decreases the drug accumulation in the hair follicles. We report our preliminaryexperience with a scalp cooling device in reducing chemotherapy-induced alopecia and related distressin breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy.Methods: Hair loss grading and treatment tolerability were evaluated during chemotherapy every 21days and 3 weeks after the last cycle of chemotherapy via Dean’s scale by patients and operators anda comfort analogic scale by patients. We administered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scalequestionnaire at the baseline and at the end of treatment to assess the distress related to chemotherapy-induced alopecia.Results: Among the 46 patients identified, 27 accepted the device. The eligible chemotherapy regimensincluded docetaxel+cyclophosphamide (TC), doxorubicin+cyclophosphamide (AC) andpaclitaxel (P) weekly+trastuzumab (T). 24 pts (89%) completed the treatment; 3 pts (11%) treatedwith AC prematurely interrupted use of the scalp-cooling device due to inefficacy. After the last cycleof chemotherapy, the number of patient who perceived a HL < grade 2 was 16 (59%). The hairretention reported by operators has been higher (78%). 81.5% of patients well tolerated the treatment.Conclusion: In our study, the scalp-cooling device reduced chemotherapy-induced alopecia in taxane-based chemotherapy. Furthermore, it suggests a discordance in hair loss perception between patientsand operators.