Machines offer hair loss help for cancer patients

 

Scalp-cooling machines which are thought to help reduce hair loss in cancer patients have been bought by a Leeds hospital

July 2009

Patients at a Leeds hospital undergoing chemotherapy are to discover that hair loss is not inevitable.

St James's Institute of Oncology, in Leeds, has just taken delivery of 21 scalp cooling machines, which can reduce or even prevent hair loss in patients undergoing chemotherapy.

A grant from breast cancer charity, Walk the Walk, worth approximately £250,000, has bought the coolers, which are made by Huddersfield-based manufacturer, Paxman Coolers.

The 21 scalp coolers have been causing quite a spectacle in Bexley Wing's impressive glass atrium, at St James's Hospital.

Scalp cooling is a method used to prevent or reduce hair loss for patients receiving chemotherapy.

Research and studies have shown that scalp cooling can be effective across a wide range of chemotherapy drugs such as Epirubicin, Doxorubicin, Taxol and Taxotere.

Reducing the scalp temperature by a few degrees creates a restriction in the amount of blood reaching the hair follicles thereby protecting them from the effects of the concentrated chemotherapy drugs carried in the blood stream.

Walk the Walk is a grant- making charity, which means that everybody taking part in their challenges is raising money for Walk the Walk.

The charity then looks at various projects and campaigns that are involved with breast cancer and grants funds to where it knows it will make the most difference.

Its policy is to support research, and also to support those that have cancer with equipment and care.

It is the aim of Walk the Walk to put scalp coolers in hospitals throughout the UK, including training for staff and maintenance and as a result enable all cancer patients to have the chance to receive a treatment that can make a beneficial difference to how well they manage their treatment.

Sue Dodman, a matron at the hospital's oncology centre said: "We are absolutely delighted with this extremely generous donation.

"This will be a big step forward in enhancing the treatment of our patients undergoing chemotherapy, for whom hair loss is a significant factor."

Source

Scalp-cooling machines which are thought to help reduce hair loss in cancer patients have been bought by a Leeds hospital