Abstract P5-14-21: Prospective study of hair recovery after (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy with scalp cooling in Japanese breast cancer patients
Authors: Ohsumi Shozo , Kiyoto Sachiko , Miyoshi Yuichiro , Takahashi Mina , Takashima Seiki , Aogi Kenjiro , Shimizu Sachie , Doi Miyuki 
Published: March 2020

Introduction

Scalp cooling during chemotherapy infusion to mitigate hair loss for breast cancer patients is becoming popular in European and North American countries. But there is little prospective data regarding hair recovery after chemotherapy with scalp cooling. We reported on the results of hair loss prevention with scalp cooling during (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy with anthracyclines and/or taxanes for 122 Japanese breast cancer patients at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Now we report on the prospective data of hair recovery of our 122 patients.

Patients and Methods

One hundred and twenty two Japanese breast cancer female patients who completed planned (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy used Paxman Scalp Cooling System for alopecia prevention and were evaluable for hair loss prevention in our prospective study. The scalp cooling was done 30 minutes prior to and during and 90 minutes after each chemotherapy infusion. We evaluated their hair recovery 1, 4, 7, 10, and 13 months after completion of the chemotherapy. We took photographs of the heads of the patients from 5 directions, namely front, back, both sides, and top and asked the patients about the use of a wig or hat to conceal the hair loss using a questionnaire at the times mentioned above. Primary outcomes were grades of alopecia judged by two investigators (defined as Grade 0: 0% of hair loss, G1: 1~25 %, G2: 26~50%, G3: &gt; 50%)(objective grade) and patients' answers to the questionnaire (defined as Grade 0: not at all, G1: sometimes, G2: almost always)(subjective grade). Among 122 patients 79 completed scalp cooling during the whole planned chemotherapy cycles, but 43 discontinued it mostly after the first cycle due to several reasons. We compared the objective and subjective grades of hair loss between the patients who had completed the scalp cooling (79 patients: Group A) and those who had discontinued it (43 patients: Group B).

Results

Objective grades 1 month after completion of the chemotherapy were Grade 0 in 6 patients (4.9 %), G1 in 13, G2 in 29, and G3 in 74, and subjective grades at 1 month were Grade 0 in 3 patients (2.5 %), G1 in 13, G2 in 105, and unknown in 1. The changes over time in objective grades were as follows; 4 months: G0 55 (47.0 %), G1 52, G2 9, G3 1, unknown 5, 7 months: G0 99 (85.3 %), G1 15, G2 1, G3 1, unknown 6, 10 months: G0 105 (89.7 %), G1 10, G2 1, G3 1, unknown 5, 13 months: G0 104 (92.0 %), G1 7, G2 1, G3 1, unknown 9. On the other hand, the changes in subjective grades were as follows; 4 months: G0 12 (10.3 %), G1 29, G2 76, unknown 5, 7 months: G0 53 (45.7 %), G1 22, G2 41, unknown 6, 10 months: G0 80 (68.4 %), G1 15, G2 22, unknown 5, 13 months: G0 93 (82.3%), G1 7, G2 13, unknown 9. When we compared Group A with Group B, the rates of objective G0 were statistically significantly higher in Group A than Group B, at 4, 10, and 13 months (4 months: 55.7% vs. 28.9%, P = 0.010, 10 months: 96.1% vs. 78.0%, P = 0.006, 13 months: 97.3% vs. 81.6%, P = 0.011) and the rate of subjective G0 was also statistically significantly higher in Group A than Group B at 7 months (53.2 % vs. 30.8 %, P = 0.022). When we restricted the data to those with objective Grade 3 at 1 month, Group A showed tendency of faster hair recovery in the objective grades than Group B.

Conclusion

It is concluded that scalp cooling during chemotherapy infusion for Japanese breast cancer patients made their hair recovery faster.

Citation Format: Shozo Ohsumi, Sachiko Kiyoto, Yuichiro Miyoshi, Mina Takahashi, Seiki Takashima, Kenjiro Aogi, Sachie Shimizu, Miyuki Doi. Prospective study of hair recovery after (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy with scalp cooling in Japanese breast cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-14-21.