Hair disorders in patients with cancer
- Study type
- Review article
- Design
- Review article
- Source
- Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology · 2019
In plain words
Some cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and hormone treatments, can cause hair loss or changes in the colour, texture and growth of hair. The cause of these changes is still not fully understood, which is why guidelines for preventing and treating them are limited. This article reviews the types of these problems, ways of measuring their severity and their effect on quality of life, and ways of managing them. If you have noticed changes in your hair, talk to your treating doctor.
Study population
This paper is a review and no specific patients were enrolled. The subject of the review is patients with cancer who receive cancer-related treatments and develop hair disorders.
Endpoints
This is a review article and has no defined endpoint. The review covers pathophysiological mechanisms, severity grading scales, patient-reported quality-of-life questionnaires, management strategies and opportunities for future translational research.
Safety and side effects
This is a review article and no specific safety data are reported in the abstract. Based on the abstract, cytotoxic chemotherapy, molecularly targeted therapies, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, stem cell transplantation and hormone therapies can lead to hair disorders including alopecia, hirsutism, hypertrichosis and changes in hair pigmentation and texture.
Clinical significance and place in guidelines
This review brings together for clinicians a framework of hair disorders associated with cancer treatment, severity grading scales and quality-of-life questionnaires, and emphasises the lack of guidelines for prevention and treatment because the mechanisms are incompletely understood. The abstract does not refer to a specific guideline or change in clinical practice; the status of current guidelines should be checked separately.
Limitations
This is a narrative review, and based on the abstract the underlying mechanisms of hair disorders are not yet fully understood. The effect on quality of life of changes other than chemotherapy-induced alopecia (such as radiation-induced alopecia, hirsutism and changes in hair colour or texture) has not been described.
This summary was prepared by the editorial team from the published paper; the original paper is the final reference. Read the original abstract on PubMed.