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Am
I at risk for breast cancer?
July 3, 2000:
Preventing
Colon Cancer
May 13, 1999: Bone
marrow transplants and breast cancer
Feb. 18, 1999:
Preventative
Mastectomies
Sept. 25, 1998:
The
Cancer March
May 27, 1998:
Sorting out cancer
research
April 13, 1998:
New drugs to treat breast
cancer
March 18, 1998:
Is Vitamin
E a cancer fighter?
March 12, 1998:
Some
cancers are declining.
May 30, 1996:
Lawsuits against breast
implant manufacturers.
Nov. 25, 1996:
More news about Prostate
Cancer
The NewsHour's Health
Spotlight.
Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Health
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SUSAN
DENTZER: Of all the trials that accompany treatment for cancer, losing
one's hair as a result of chemotherapy is among the toughest. Linda Chandlee
of Washington, DC, recently underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer.
LINDA CHANDLEE, Chemotherapy Patient: The hair loss began to occur about
four weeks after the first dose. It started coming out in clumps, and
it took about a week, and I was completely bald.
SUSAN DENTZER: How did it make you feel?
LINDA CHANDLEE: I was devastated. It was a horrible feeling. Before, when
I was feeling well, and I could be up and dressed and doing things, and
I looked the same. But with the hair loss, when you walk in front of a
mirror, you don't look the same anymore, and your self-image is so tied
up in how you look that it was a constant reminder that something was
seriously wrong. |
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SUSAN DENTZER: And hair loss from chemotherapy is more than just a
cosmetic issue. Medical experts say some cancer patients even forego
treatment for fear of the intense embarrassment that will result.
LINDA CHANDLEE: I do feel sometimes when I walk out on the street at
lunch that I have a sign flashing over my head saying "chemotherapy,
chemotherapy, chemotherapy. And you get used to it, and it - you try
not to let it bother you, but it's always in the back of your mind that
people are looking at you going, "she's got cancer."
SUSAN DENTZER: About one million Americans undergo chemotherapy for
cancer each year. Whether men, women, or children, about half experience
at least some hair loss, and that can include the disappearance of eyebrows
and eyelashes along with other body hair. Most chemotherapy drugs work
by targeting and killing cells that are rapidly dividing. Those include
many cancerous cells as well as many healthy cells, including those
in hair follicles, the sheaths that surround the bottom of the hair
shaft. The death of those cells is what causes hair to fall out. For
many patients, a wig or hairpiece is one way of coping, like these for
sale here at a Maryland store that caters to cancer patients. But in
the future, there may be pharmaceutical approaches that will prevent
chemotherapy- induced hair loss in the first place. One such approach
was outlined in a study published in the respected journal "Science."
In the study, researchers at the pharmaceutical company Glaxo Wellcome
described how they'd developed a compound; it appeared to prevent hair
loss in rats that were given chemotherapy drugs. Stephen Davis was the
lead researcher.
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STEPHEN DAVIS, Glaxo Wellcome: We asked a very simple scientific question.
Specifically, could we arrest the cells in the hair follicles in a temporary
manner, which would make those cells less sensitive to the chemotherapy,
and thereby we protect those cells from the killing effects of the chemotherapy,
and maintain the hair and the hair follicle.
SUSAN DENTZER: To do that, Davis and his colleagues first located a
particular enzyme in the body; it functions as a switch to turn on cell
division in follicles, and it's called CDK-2. Then they designed special
compounds to block this enzyme, called CDK-2 inhibitors. Then they tested
the compounds on baby rats that were given two widely used chemotherapy
drugs.
STEPHEN DAVIS: We applied our compound, topically, to the scalp, approximately
four hours and two hours prior to administering the chemotherapy, and
the results were just remarkable. We were able to protect hair loss
only where we applied the compound, topically, into the, the scalp areas
of the animal.
SUSAN DENTZER: Specifically, one group of animals got the special compound
on their scalps and then a chemotherapy drug used to treat testicular
and lung cancer. 70 percent of the rats had either no or partial hair
loss on their scalp. And still another set of rats got the compounds
and a drug used for advanced breast cancer. 33 percent of those animals
had no hair loss. Davis says the results are statistically strong.
STEPHEN DAVIS: The science was very exciting on this project and that's
why we feel there's a lot of promise with this approach for treating
chemotherapy-induced hair loss.
SUSAN DENTZER: But at least for now, Davis cautions, that promise is
some ways off. It could be several years before the safety and effectiveness
of the compounds are established, or before they're made widely available
for treating cancer patients. Preliminary as this research is, cancer
patients like Chandlee say the findings give them hope.
LINDA CHANDLEE: It makes me feel really good that the research is going
on, that somebody thought this was important enough to research.
SUSAN DENTZER: Amy Cordaro, who owns that Wheaton, Maryland wig store,
agrees.
AMY CORDARO: I think it's good. It's about time. Emotionally it's very
hard for people to lose their hair. If you have breast cancer and you
lose a breast, you can hide it. You can't see it. But it's very hard
to hide if you have no hair on your head.
SUSAN DENTZER: Glaxo Wellcome recently merged with pharmaceutical giant
SmithKline Beecham, and the combined company is now contemplating whether
to move forward with further research on CDK-2 inhibitors. Meanwhile,
the results published this week in "Science" have already
stimulated interest at other pharmaceutical companies in developing
similar drugs.
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