A randomized clinical trial was performed to determine the effectiveness of scalp hypothermia in the prevention of hair loss associated with doxorubicin. Twenty-six patients were randomized to receive scalp hypothermia or chemotherapy alone. Data were analyzed on 25 patients: 12 in the treatment group and 13 in the control group. There was acceptable hair preservation in 75% of the patients who received the scalp hypothermia; only 8% of the patients in the control group had acceptable hair preservation ( P = 0.0009). The data were further broken down into patients receiving low-dose doxorubicin and highdose doxorubicin. Side effects were minimal. The results support the use of scalp hypothermia in reducing doxorubicin-induced alopecia.
Cancer 54:34-37, 1984.
YTOTOXICCHEMOTHERAPY has been associated with C a number of side effects including myelosuppression, nausea, vomiting, and alopecia. Although certainly not life-threatening, alopecia can be psychologically devastating, especially when it occurs in a person whose body image has already been altered by the cancer.' In adolescents alopecia may be even more traumatic than the actual diagnosis of malignancy.' Doxorubicin, an anthracycline antibiotic derived from Steptornycespeucetius caesuis, is one of the most effective and widely used chemotherapeutic agents introduced in the last d e ~a d e . ~ It is believed to act by intercalating into the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) helix and thereby causing inhibition of DNA synthesis4 Doxorubicin has significant activity in a number of malignancies including breast, testicular, and ovarian carcinomas, bone and soft tissue sarcomas, malignant lymphomas, and acute leukemia.
Although alopecia may be seen with many chemotherapeutic agents, with doxorubicin it is said to be severe From the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, Virginia Common-