Published in:
01-06-2017 | Clinical trial
Chemotherapy-induced irreversible alopecia in early breast cancer patients
Published in: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment | Issue 3/2017
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Purpose
The purpose of this work is to determine the prevalence of chemotherapy-induced irreversible alopecia (CIIA), which is defined as an alopecia that exists at least 6 months after completion of chemotherapy and factors affecting CIIA in early breast cancer patients.
Methods
We performed a cross-sectional study. We retrospectively identified breast cancer patients who had received AC (Adriamycin, Cyclophosphamide) or AC-T (AC followed by Taxane) as neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. We conducted questionnaire survey regarding alopecia and measured hair density using phototrichogram.
Results
From February 2015 to May 2015, among 265 patients who responded properly to the questionnaire, the women who answered they had severe alopecia (alopecia > 50% of scalp) were 19 patients (7.2%). AC-only and AC-T treated patients reported severe alopecia in 2.7% and 10.5%, respectively, which were significantly different (p < 0.001). Mean hair density was 75 hair/cm2 (range 42–112) and 75.2/cm2 (range 48.3–102) on occipital area and vertex area, respectively. Hair loss was the most frequent in parietal area (42.6%). Half of total patients (46%) and 73% of CIIA patients regarded that their hair became thinner after chemotherapy
Conclusions
We found that significant proportion of early breast cancer patients were suffering from severe CIIA, especially when they had been treated with AC followed by taxane regimen.