How close are we to an actual cure?

[Corrida]

Seen lots of talk saying a cure is close, but is it actually? Haven't they been saying it is for years now?

[hal]

5 to 7 years.

It's always 5 to 7 years.

[Corrida]

5 to 7 years.

It's always 5 to 7 years.

:-'(

Guess it'll be true someday

[clee984]

I think it would be good if a thread like this was a sticky on this forum - a quick overview of where everything's at with a 'cure'.

There are face transplants now. We can grow meat in a lab. Why in the name of ruddy eff, is there not a way to just replicate a hair follicle for a person, and transplant it onto their head? It's annoying, to say the least.

[pajason]

I think it would be good if a thread like this was a sticky on this forum - a quick overview of where everything's at with a 'cure'.

There are face transplants now. We can grow meat in a lab. Why in the name of ruddy eff, is there not a way to just replicate a hair follicle for a person, and transplant it onto their head? It's annoying, to say the least.

Good chance they will be able to grow you hair and transplant it in another 10 years. chances of a 100 percent cure are near zero for anytime in the next 20 years. I do think in the next 5 years there will be another treatment that is similar in effectiveness somewhere between propecia and minoxidil.

[hal]

:-'(

Guess it'll be true someday

I remember in 1985 first hearing about Minox... and everyone saying that it was just the first step. That in 5 to 7 years there would be a cure...

[hal]

Think about that-- if they could harvest a few hairs from the back of your head. Grow or clone them in the lab, then have you come in for a 5,000 graft session.

It would basically be batch processing at that point...

[clee984]

I remember in 1985 first hearing about Minox... and everyone saying that it was just the first step. That in 5 to 7 years there would be a cure...

I remember hearing Spencer Kobren say that in 1998 when he started the bald truth radio show, that he really felt there was a sense that something was about to change, and that he was sure that a cure really would happen in the next 5 years (so, by 2003).

To me, it's kinda crazy, that this physically harmless but psychologically crippling (for some men) condition doesn't have some solution like just taking a DHT resistant hair and cloning it a few thousand times, and transplanting it. It really shouldn't be a problem anymore, still, in 2019.

[fallenangel]

Well define cure.

If you mean recovery from nw7 then likely pretty far away unless something comes out of nowhere. Tsuji HF primordium is probably the best bet but its not like hes worked out all the technical issues yet and hes still not trialing on humans yet.

If you meant better treatments, well they are super close. There are multiple treatments in phase 3 trials. Histogen, and sm0445 off the top of my head. There are several other treatments in phase 2 trials.

Dutasteride + minoxodil would delay hair loss pretty much indefinitely for almost everyone. Fin + Minox alone will do it for most people. There will definitely be outliers which these don't affect and that is partially to do with other pathologies influencing aga as well like zinc deficiency or lack or vitamin d production.

[John P. Cole, MD]

I've been hearing 5 years away for over 25 years and still, we are no closer. All hairs are still on your scalp when you go bald. Androgenic alopecia is just accelerated aging. How do we turn the back on? That is the best short term answer and no one has it. Topical finasteride with minoxidil is the best solution I've seen so far and without the side effects so that is great.

[clee984]

You'd think that something HAS to happen soon with baldness treatments, it's been 22 years since propecia, and there are so many other medical advances in other areas with organ transplants and stem cells etc.

[John P. Cole, MD]

The communication between the dermal papilla, secondary hair germ, and bulge stem cells is complicated and not a simple process to replicate.

[clee984]

I bet it's more complicated than I could grasp in 7 lifetimes, but we cloned a sheep in 1997, and I hear about face transplants all the time. I just would've thought that given how psychologically traumatic baldness can be (I don't know how many people commit suicide because of it, but I bet it's non-negligible), how much money is spent on the industry, and the exponential increases in computing power etc, that you geniuses are going to figure it out soon!

[John P. Cole, MD]

I've considered the sheep clone and the best analogy I can make is baking a cake. Imagine you put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them up. You put them in a cake bin, place it in the oven, set the temperature, and then bake a cake. You have a cake. The more complicated scenario is to mix all the ingredients in a bowl, and then ask to make sugar. Not so easy.

[clee984]

Do you think that you guys will be able to "make the sugar" any time soon, dr? I'm very intrigued by what doctors actually think about this, realistically, because we hear so much speculation from those of us who know nothing.