Effectiveness of scalp cooling in reducing chemotherapy-induced alopecia: A single center prospective study in Lebanon.
e12075 Background: Hair loss (alopecia) is recognized as one of the most common and distressing side effects of chemotherapy. The scalp cooler first used in 1970s against the Chemotherapy CIA (chemotherapy induced alopecia). This study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of scalp cooling (PAXMAN Cooler ORBIS II SCALP COOLER) in reducing chemotherapy-induced alopecia. Methods: This prospective study was conducted at the Mount-Lebanon Hospital in the one day chemotherapy between 01 January 2017 and 31 December 2018. 109 women diagnosed with breast cancer with stage I or II undergoing neoadjuvant, and adjuvant chemotherapy were enrolled. Patients with scalp cooling 54.1% (n=59), control 45.9 % (n=50). Scalp cooling done by using the scalp cooling device. The primary end point was to assess the hair loss using the dean’s scale after multiple cycles of chemotherapy. The clinical assessment and alopecia evaluation were done after each chemotherapy cycle. The secondary endpoint was the side effect of the scalp cooler such as headache. Results: The Mean age was 55.73 ± 11.9 years. 82.56 %received Anthracycline-based chemotherapy regimen with Docetaxel, and 14.69 % Anthracycline-based chemotherapy regimen with Paclitaxel and 2.75 % took only anthracycline with cyclophosphamide. The effectiveness of hair preservation was successfully reported as 62.7% grade 0, 22.01 % grade 1 and 15.29% grade 2. There were highly significant differences between patients underwent scalp cooling and patients without scalp cooling with different regimens of chemotherapy (P value <0.0001). The major side effect, the headache where was reported in 25.7% from the total (P value <0.0001). Conclusions: Hair preservation in stage I , II breast cancer undergoing multiple regimens of chemotherapy was significantly more effective in the scalp cooling group.