Assessment and Treatment Outcomes of Persistent Radiation-Induced Alopecia in Patients With Cancer
In cohort study in 71 children and adults, severe alopecia was associated with greater scalp radiation dose and proton irradiation. Alopecia improvement was observed in 82% of patients treated with topical minoxidil, 5%, solution and 100% of patients treated surgically.
Source:
JAMA Dermatology
SPS commentary:
Also published in the journal is a genome-wide association study in 215 women treated with docetaxel-based therapies, which found genetic variants in the ABCB1 gene that were significantly linked to risk of developing persistent chemotherapy-induced alopecia.
An editorial hopes that the findings from these studies will encourage attempts to develop and evaluate novel preventive therapeutic measures for persistent chemotherapy-induced alopecia (e.g. topical agents capable of modulating P-glycoprotein expression in the scalp during chemotherapy). It adds that if such new treatments are proven to be effective, they would markedly increase the quality of life for patients with cancer by alleviating the psychological distress caused by this adverse drug-related effect.