Cold Capping: Help for Hair Loss During Chemo

Chemotherapy is one of the most common forms of cancer treatment. Unfortunately, it often comes with hair loss and other unwanted side effects. While wigs and hats can cover up hair loss until hair grows back, there’s a solution for patients who want to prevent hair loss: cold capping.

If you’ve never heard of it, don’t be surprised. Cold capping, also called scalp cooling, has been available in the United States for a few years but is becoming more widespread.

How Scalp Cooling Works

Scalp cooling is exactly what it sounds like — a treatment that involves cooling the scalp to prevent hair loss. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized the therapy only for patients receiving chemotherapy for solid tumor cancers.

“Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment. It enters the blood stream and travels throughout the body, killing cancer cells wherever they may be,” says Susanne Baisch, FNP-BC, AOCNP, an advanced oncology certified nurse practitioner at Beaufort Memorial Oncology Specialists. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t discriminate between cancer cells and healthy cells, including those in the hair follicles. That’s why some forms of chemotherapy cause hair loss.”

Read More: Making Cancer Less Obvious

Scalp cooling works by constricting blood vessels in the scalp, which limits the amount of blood that reaches the hair follicles. How this reduces hair loss isn’t yet clear, but researchers have two theories:

1. Less blood flow means less chemotherapy medication can reach the scalp, reducing the likelihood of hair loss.
2. Chemotherapy attacks quickly multiplying cells, and cold cells don’t multiply quickly.

Cold Capping vs. Scalp Cooling

Though several companies make different types of cold caps, they all work the same. Cold capping begins 30-50 minutes before chemo treatment. A patient wears a hat that looks like a swim cap designed to keep the scalp cool throughout the treatment and up to five hours after. The length of time a patient wears the cap depends on the type of cancer and chemotherapy medication.

Cold cap therapy involves what is essentially an ice pack shaped like a hat. As the cooling cap thaws during treatment, it gets replaced with another.

Scalp cooling is the high-tech version. With scalp cooling, a special refrigeration machine constantly pumps cold liquid through the cap. The cap is insulated to keep the scalp consistently cool throughout treatment. The DigniCap^® Scalp Cooling System in use at the Beaufort Memorial Keyserling Cancer Center and New River Cancer Center qualifies as this type of therapy.

Read More: Get a Handle on Chemotherapy Side Effects

Yes, Cold Capping Works

The FDA initially authorized cold capping for breast cancer patients after research showed its success in women with stages 1 and 2 breast cancer. More than two-thirds of those who received chemotherapy while receiving cold cap therapy lost less than half of their hair.

“At Beaufort Memorial, we use scalp cooling therapy for patients who have solid tumor cancers of the breast, prostate, ovary, uterus, lung and other solid tumors,” Baisch says. “When effective, it can help patients overcome or minimize one of the most obvious side effects of cancer treatment. We want everyone who qualifies to have access to scalp cooling, so feel free to inquire if your chemotherapy treatment is compatible with scalp cooling and we will make you aware of your options.”

At Beaufort Memorial, patients need to purchase a DigniCap kit and pay DigniCap a per-treatment fee, which some insurance plans may cover, but we don’t receive any payment for this service.

Learn more about scalp cooling, and download a free guide to cancer care at Beaufort Memorial.