Patent ID: 8257686

Claim:
A method of reducing chemotherapy-induced alopecia in a human patient or other mammalian animal to be subjected to chemotherapy treatment of a tumor not residing in the scalp or other region susceptible to chemotherapy-induced alopecia of the patient or the skin of the other mammalian animal comprising : a) administering an effective amount of a composition comprising a chemical inducer selected from the group consisting of a benzoquinone ansamycin, an arsenic salt, and an activated HSF1 nucleic acid or HSF1 protein that causes an increase in the concentration of at least one stress protein selected from the group consisting of Hsp90, Hsp70, Hsp25-27 and P-glycoprotein in hair follicles residing in skin or scalp that is exposed to the chemical inducer and that produces an increased resistance of the hair follicles to chemotherapeutic drugs in the scalp or other region susceptible to chemotherapy-induced alopecia of a human patient or the skin of the other mammalian animal: and b) administering a chemotherapeutic drug to said human patient or said other mammalian animal.