Experimental Glaxo Wellcome drug may block hair loss due to chemotherapy. Kev's comments Experimental Glaxo Wellcome drug may block hair loss due to chemotherapy. April 2000 Hair loss from chemotherapy, a distressing side effect of cancer treatment, could be a thing of the past if a gel under development shows promise in adults.
Cancer cells grow faster than normal tissue.
Chemotherapy works by killing cells that are rapidly dividing. An unintended side effect is damage to the hair follicles, where cells also divide more quickly than cells in other organs of the body. The Glaxo drug works by temporarily stopping the follicles from dividing, a sort of suspended animation, shielding them from the effects of chemotherapy. The effect wears off within a day and does not seem to make any difference in long-term hair growth. In the experiments, scientists gave rats a chemotherapy drug called etoposide.