M Martín1, 2, J C de la Torre-Montero3, 4, S López-Tarruella5, K Pinilla6, A Casado3, S Fernandez3, 5, Y Jerez5, J Puente3, I Palomero5, R González Del Val5, M Del Monte-Millan5, T Massarrah5, C Vila3, B García-Paredes3, J A García-Sáenz3, A Lluch6
1Medical Oncology Service, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, CIBERONC, GEICAM, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain. mmartin@geicam.org.
2Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Medical Oncology Service, Calle Maiquez, no. 9, 28007, Madrid, Spain. mmartin@geicam.org.
3Medical Oncology Department, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Hospital Clínico San Carlos (IdISSC), CIBERONC, Madrid, Spain.
4Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain.
5Medical Oncology Service, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, CIBERONC, Madrid, Spain.
6Medical Oncology Department, Hospital Clínico Universitario, CIBERONC, Valencia, Spain.
Patients undergoing scalp cooling with their chemotherapy treatment had follow-up visits every 6 months to determine the grade of hair loss. Grade 1 persistent alopecia was defined as “weakening of the hair or partial alopecia, not leading to the use of a wig after 18 months from the end of adjuvant chemotherapy” Grade 2 persistent alopecia was defined as “complete alopecia that requires a wig after 18 months from the end of adjuvant chemotherapy”.
Drug regimen: cumulative docetaxel dose of ≥ 400mg/m2. Timing of chemotherapy: adjuvant treatment.
Method of scalp cooling: Static refrigerated cold caps Patients: 492 breast cancer patients.
It was found that grade 2 PA was only seen in chemotherapy regimens containing docetaxel and that these treatments also had a significantly higher proportion of patients showing grade 1 PA to treatments not containing docetaxel. When scalp cooling was used, no incidences of grade 2 persistent alopecia were seen with docetaxel. Only 1 patient (0.8%) showed grade 1 PA . Therefore, it can be said that scalp cooling is effective at preventing persistent alopecia in breast cancer patients on docetaxel chemotherapy regimens.
No significant side effects were recorded. All patients tolerated scalp cooling well, and therefore, completed all scheduled appointments. 10% of patients reported mild headaches but did not discontinue treatment.
