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UW professor may have found cure to hair loss from chemotherapy
MADISON, Wis. -
Lynn Malayter was shocked enough to be diagnosed with breast cancer almost two years ago. She never thought she would have to endure chemotherapy, but with the odds of recurrence stacked against her, Malayter went through about a year of treatments.
“2013 was a challenge, but we overcame it,” Malayter said.
When Malayter started losing her hair, her husband helped by shaving her bald. She remembered it being cold and an inherent need to cover her head. She got scarves, hats, and wigs.
“To maintain a sense of normalcy would have been really nice,” Malayter said.
Led by UW oncology professor William Fahl, a preclinical study could help chemotherapy patients get a step closer to that normalcy.
Fahl came across the discovery accidentally. He was testing how effective another drug was for preventing hair loss during chemotherapy and radiation when he found a vasoconstrictor can help save the hair follicles of those going through those treatments.
The drug - also found in Novocain and similar numbing agents at dentist offices – can restrict blood flow to an area of skin. When used to eliminate feeling in your gums, Fahl said the vasoconstrictor is keeping the injected anesthetic in a particular spot.
Fahl suggested that applying the ingredient topically to the scalp could protect hair follicles from the chemotherapy, and therefore prevent hair loss.
“The blood vessels lay a few, about a millimeter below the surface. So by topically applying it, you constrict those blood vessels and in the process, without detail, you essentially diminish the amount of chemotherapy that's delivered to that thin film of tissue, and that tissue basically holds all of the stem cells for the hair follicle as well as the skin, so you're protecting them,” Fahl explained.
Fahl said in a time when other studies are pushing for more chemotherapy, preventing some of the most hated side effects of treatment becomes even more important.
“Our goal is that in 10 years, people go to their oncologist with the clear expectation of having their cancers cured and do so in a manner that's consistent with their life,” Fahl said.
As the treatment continues to be tested, Fahl hopes more funding will soon be offered to push it through the necessary phases
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interesting read, but it doesn't have any connection to MPB/AGA. It's just a way to basically 'isolate' your hair from the chemotherapy so that it doesn't fall out fue to the radiative treatment. It's great news for cancer patients. God help them.
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Why is it that the most common type of hair loss is the last one to have any advanced cures or even a freaking mere solution to stop it? Seems that every other type of hair loss has now been accounted for, except AGA. Dammit, this shit sucks.
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Senior Member
Originally Posted by cichlidfort
Why is it that the most common type of hair loss is the last one to have any advanced cures or even a freaking mere solution to stop it? Seems that every other type of hair loss has now been accounted for, except AGA. Dammit, this shit sucks.
LOL! I was also thinking the same. Perhaps, that is, because its the most difficult to cure. Secondly, women are not affected by it. If women were affected by such thing, the priority to cure it would be much higher for sure.
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Originally Posted by cichlidfort
Why is it that the most common type of hair loss is the last one to have any advanced cures or even a freaking mere solution to stop it? Seems that every other type of hair loss has now been accounted for, except AGA. Dammit, this shit sucks.
It's because the other forms of Alopecia affect women just as much as it does men, hence the priority for it. Men's health is often times seen as a joke; you'll have men and women laugh about a guy with testicular cancer and society will condone it but you will NEVER hear about a woman with breast cancer getting laughed at.
Want proof of the sexist mentality society has for men's health issues? Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkmanLIAdXI
The whole panel of women, including the audience LAUGHS at a man for 5 minutes for having his penis cut off by his wife.
Do you think if a woman had her tits cut off anyone would laugh at that?
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Originally Posted by hellouser
It's because the other forms of Alopecia affect women just as much as it does men, hence the priority for it. Men's health is often times seen as a joke; you'll have men and women laugh about a guy with testicular cancer and society will condone it but you will NEVER hear about a woman with breast cancer getting laughed at.
Want proof of the sexist mentality society has for men's health issues? Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkmanLIAdXI
The whole panel of women, including the audience LAUGHS at a man for 5 minutes for having his penis cut off by his wife.
Do you think if a woman had her tits cut off anyone would laugh at that?[/U]
I would laugh if it were their tits...
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Originally Posted by 2young2bald
I would laugh if it were their tits...
I wouldn't. There's nothing funny about anyone's misfortune of their physical or psychological well being.
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Originally Posted by hellouser
I wouldn't. There's nothing funny about anyone's misfortune of their physical or psychological well being.
You get what I mean I think.
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Originally Posted by baldozer
LOL! I was also thinking the same. Perhaps, that is, because its the most difficult to cure. Secondly, women are not affected by it. If women were affected by such thing, the priority to cure it would be much higher for sure.
Actually 40% of hair loss sufferers in the US are women, they problems are that that fact is keeping hidden and I think that most of them don't lose their hair when they are between the age 16-28.
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