Chemotherapy hair loss is one of the numerous effects of this cancer treatment. What is the reason why hair loss occurs during chemotherapy?

Well, the drugs used in this type of cancer treatment are very strong, therefore very efficient in attacking the rapidly developing cancer cells. These medicines also attack other cells in the body that have a rapid growth; the cells in the digestive tract and the hair follicles are the main examples here. The effects of chemotherapy on hair are manifest for all the body parts covered by hair. Thus, patients will experience the loss of eyebrows, eyelashes, pubic and armpit hair.

There is a wide variety of drugs that are used in chemotherapy. Among these, obviously some are more likely to cause chemotherapy hair loss than others. The difference in chemotherapy drug doses is another aspect to consider when hair loss is under discussion, as hair loss ranges from thinning to complete baldness. Thus, make sure to discuss all such details with your doctor, in order to be prepared to cope with hair loss psychologically.

In most cases you’ll start losing hair within ten or fourteen days after you start chemotherapy. It may happen quite fast, gradually or in clumps. Hair loss usually continues throughout the treatment and even one month after it. Half the hair will be gone without one even noticing. Luckily, in most cases, chemotherapy hair loss represents a temporary effect. Hair can be expected to grow back within six months to one year after the cessation of the treatment. Although the regrowth of the hair occurs in most of the cases, the new hair could be of a different texture and shade temporarily.

The hair recovery period after chemotorapy is six weeks on the average, and the growth rate will be somewhere around a quarter inch per month. When the hair starts growing back again, it might be a little different from the hair that was lost because of therapy. The color and texture alteration will stop and the hair will recover the look previous to the treatment the moment cellular pigmentation is functioning normally all over again. Unfortunately, chemotherapy hair loss cannot be prevented as there is no treatment which will guarantee that the hair will not fall out.

Other Posts On This Subject:

Celebrity Hair Loss Due to Chemotherapy

While it can be hard for anyone to deal with the hair loss associated with cancer treatment, there is an added element for celebrities. Constant public scrutiny may make it difficult to have privacy during this often difficult period. 

Chemotherapy side effects

Chemotherapy is a treatment for cancer. One of the major side effects of chemotherapy is hair loss.   

Does Chemo Cause Scarring, Leading to Permanent Hair Loss? 

Does Chemo Cause Scarring, Leading to Permanent Hair Loss? November 12 2009, 12:33 pm PT | Posted in: Hair Loss Causes. I had cancer a couple years ago and it has left my hair much thinner then it used to be. where its has got thin the …   

 Hair loss due to chemotherapy

Few dermatologic conditions carry as much emotional distress as chemotherapy-induced hair loss (CIA). The prerequisite for successful development of strategies for CIA prevention is the understanding of the pathobiology of CIA. … 

Best Natural Remedy: Green Tea for Hair Loss!

Hair Loss Due to Chemotherapy. It is one of the most well known side effects of chemotherapy, hair loss. The hair loss due to chemo varies for everyone. For some persons it is gradual loss over time, for others. … 

scarring alopecia: How to Ease Chemotherapy Hair Loss for Women

Nobody wants their hair, especially with the huge fact that losing face to cancer. There is no needYou feel self conscious while you take care of your health, but. One great way is to cover a wig to wear your chemotherapy hair loss. …

Other Posts on Asbestos Cancer

• Beauty Tips – Tips for Hair removal …. Nad’s… by glozell
• InNexus Bio DXL™ Antibody Technology Causes Cancer Cell Death By Mechanisms Not Seen with Current Market-Leading Medications | Press Releases @ Your Story
• Nanotechnology Used to Deliver Treatment to Cancer Cells » Tech Jackal

Technorati Tags: armpit, Cancer, cells, chemo, chemoterapy, effects, eyebrows, eyelashes, follicles, hair, losing, loss, pubic, Treatment, wig

As a disease cancer consists of the uncontrolled malignant cellular growth, the invasion of organs and the metastasis. It seams that the cause of the condition is a combination of genetic predisposition and the exposure to some environmental toxins.

Basically, the chemotherapy drug s functioning principle is to impair cell division (mitosis), targeting rapidly-dividing cells. The damage they produce among cells, gives chemotherapy drugs the name of cytotoxic medication.

Chemotherapy, generally speaking, implies the treatment of a disease by means of chemicals which kill the sick cells. Particularly speaking, chemotherapy is used to kill the cells of micro-organisms or cancer. The most common chemotherapy drug regimen is made up from a combination of antineoplastic medication that represents the cytotoxic standardized treatment. From a non-oncological perspective, the term chemotherapy also refers to antibiotics this is known as antibacterial chemotherapy.

A chemotherapy drug, or better a combination of such drugs, functions on the principle of cellular destruction. Unfortunately, these drugs also affect/attack other healthy cells that divide rapidly. These other cells that get attacked by a chemotherapy drug are digestive tract linings, the bone marrow and the hair follicles. Thus, the main side effects of chemotherapy will include hair loss, the inflammation of the digestive tract and the reduced production of blood cells.

A chemotherapy drug could also be prescribed for the treatment of other problems such as autoimmune diseases namely rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. More modern cancer treatments known as targeted therapy use anti-cancer medication that attacks only the abnormal proteins in cancer cells.

When talking about a chemotherapy drug, we should be aware that there are different types available at present. Thus there are antimetabolites, alkylating agents, topoisomerase inhibitors, anthracyclines and several others. Some newer agents, like monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, do not interfere directly with the DNA as do the above mentioned ones.

Such modern drugs target a molecular abnormality in peculiar types of cancer such as chronic myelogenous leukemia or gastrointestinal stromal tumors. More special chemotherapy drug options only change the behavior of the tumor cells without affecting other tissues. Within these adjuvant therapies the option very commonly used is the hormone treatment.

The decision to administer only one chemotherapy drug or a combination of several medicines belongs to the doctor and it is taken depending on the stage of the disease and the purpose of the treatment.

Other Posts on Asbestos Cancer

• Fight Pink » ‘Microtentacles’ on Tumor Cells Appear to Play Role in How Breast Cancer Spreads
• Health timeline: What happens when | health, mens health, men’s health, mental health, health care, womens health, women’s health, yahoo health, childrens health, children’s health, kids health, kid’s health, depression, cholesterol, pregnancy, weight los
• Nice To See The Sunshine! « NashvilleWX

Technorati Tags: Cancer, cells, cellular, chemotherapy, destruction, disease, drug, genetic, growth, kill, malignant, medication, metastasis, predisposition, sick, Treatment