Permanent Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia in Patients with Breast Cancer: A 3-Year Prospective Cohort Study
- Study type
- Observational study
- Design
- Single-centre prospective cohort study
- Sample size
- 61 patients
- Source
- The Oncologist · 2018
In plain words
Hair loss from chemotherapy is usually thought of as temporary, but in this study about 4 in every 10 women with breast cancer still did not have full hair regrowth 3 years after finishing chemotherapy. The most common problem was thinning hair. This happened more often in those who had received drugs of the taxane group. It is a good idea to talk to your doctor about this possibility before treatment starts.
Key results
Treatment arms and regimens
Patients received adjuvant chemotherapy; taxane-containing regimens were compared with other types of chemotherapy.
Cohort study; regimens and doses were at the treating physician's discretion and are not reported in the abstract.
Source of the regimen details: Abstract of the paper
Doses are given for the information of specialists, as in this study’s protocol, and are not a prescription. Every drug must be prescribed by the treating physician for the individual patient.
Study population
Consecutive patients aged 18 and over with a postoperative diagnosis of stage I to III breast cancer who were expected to receive adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients were enrolled from the outpatient breast cancer clinic of Samsung Medical Center in Seoul (Korea) from February 2012 to July 2013.
Endpoints
The aim of the study was to estimate the long-term incidence of permanent chemotherapy-induced alopecia (PCIA). Hair density and thickness were measured objectively with a non-invasive bioengineering device before chemotherapy and up to 3 years afterwards.
Safety and side effects
This study itself examined an adverse event (permanent hair loss). The abstract reports no data on other grade 3 or higher adverse events.
Clinical significance and place in guidelines
This study shows that permanent chemotherapy-induced alopecia is a common and under-reported adverse event, and that it should be considered in pre-treatment counselling, patient education and supportive care planning. Given the small sample size and single-centre design, these findings alone are not a clinical guideline, and the status of clinical guidelines should be checked separately.
Limitations
A single-centre study with a small sample size (61 patients). The abstract has no comparator group without chemotherapy and reports no quantitative figures for the comparison of taxane-containing with other regimens. Further details should be checked in the full text of the paper.
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.