(Key points: Hair loss is a marker for chemo therapy. It reflects all of pains and struggles the patients are going through. It is also an embarrassment for biomedical professional because a poor job was done and showed in public. In the near future the most powerful and effective anti-cancer drugs will come to the market without causing hair loss.)
Recently, there is an international figure who suffers from cancer. At the first it was news showing him looks like normal, and then few weeks later when he showed up again, all you found was he lost all his hairs. Even there are some drugs nowadays causing no hair loss, but for the majority of the patients who go through all those painful processes of chemotherapy, hair loss is not only a marker for a bad fortune, but also brings a lot of emotional struggles and embarrassment.
It is a landmark for chemo. Moreover, it is an embarrassment for the cancer R & D community as well as biomedical professionals because twenty years after Taxol brought into the market, there has been essentially no any improvement on this particular problem. All explanations are that the drugs kill cancerous cells, as a side effect it also kills normal cells because the hair follicle is where there is plenty of fast growing normal cells. When you want to know more and ask how to prevent or entirely avoid hair loss. Sorry, this is all on the table.
This has to be changed. Patients are expecting true breakthroughs in hair loss and cancer treatment. To achieve this result the doctors and scientists need to change their mindset and use new approach in the field of cancer research and treatment.
I have had strong interest in this field for a while. I still remember how exciting when I read an academic paper on hair stem cells, which was published by a research team in a famous cosmetic company headquartered in France. It is quite an unbelievable and fantastic project done by them. There are no many good studies on hair loss as a result of chemo.
We need to have an integrated plan for all aspects of cancer, from the mechanism of the disease to treatment regiments, including the prevention of hair loss. In three parts of the DoctorX Project, there is a section devoted to this narrow field. I am confident the day will come when the most powerful and effective treatment will cause no hair loss at all.
Any time you see a people without hair because of chemo, if it is a marker of pain and struggles for the person, it is more embarrassment for biomedical professionals because a poor job was done and showed in public. This has to be ended, the sooner, the better.
(This article is the ninth in a series of “the Brand New Mindset for Cancer” essays. It is published on 9/20/2011.)
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