Hair loss or thinning as a side effect of some breast cancer treatments represents added distress for most patients. Although it may seem frivolous, losing hair on your head in these circumstances is a traumatic event that affects self-esteem. Hair usually grows back after treatment is completed, but in some people the hair loss may be permanent.
Minoxidil is a vasodilator medication that was initially developed as a treatment for high blood pressure, but doctors and researchers discovered that one of its ‘side effects’ was hair growth. Since then it has been used in lotion, without a prescription, as hair growth; and, for less time, it can also be taken at low doses in pills, with prescriptionto treat hair loss.
However, the prescription treatment is known to dilate blood vessels and experts fear this could increase the heart-related side effects of chemotherapy and cause chest pain, difficulty breathing or fluid buildup.
Now, a study in women with breast cancer suggests that low oral doses of minoxidil, taken during or after cancer treatment, make hair grow back in the majority of patients and without causing serious side effects heart-related illnesses that require additional therapies or hospitalization.
The new analysis, led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, included 51 women who were treated during different stages of breast cancer. Of them, 25 received some combination of surgery or radiation in addition to chemotherapy, and 26 received only the first two therapies.
“Our results should offer reassurance to breast cancer patients that they are indeed There is a safe way to combat hair loss” says study co-lead author Devyn Zaminski of New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
Although previous studies have examined the use of minoxidil in women with breast cancerthe researchers assure that this new work is one of the most complete to date that analyzes both the safety and benefits of the hair growth drug in this type of patient. The results are published in the ‘Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology’.
For the analysis, the research team collected data from NYU Langone Health’s electronic medical records system from 2012 to 2023. From hundreds of breast cancer patients who were also prescribed oral minoxidil for hair lossresearchers identified 51 women who had taken the medication for more than a month and who had data in their records about how well they tolerated the medication. They took into account age, race and previous medical history. They looked at details of breast cancer, other medications, and additional demographic factors.
Based on doctors’ evaluations and patients’ own reports, all those who took a low dose of oral minoxidil experienced improvements in hair growth or a stabilization of their hair loss between three and six months after starting therapy.
«Based on these findings, minoxidil has been shown to be safe for patients and, at the same time, effective. Therefore, the effectiveness of minoxidil may help patients regain their sense of self and some control in a situation where it has been visibly taken away from them,” said co-senior author Dr. Kristen Lo Sicco, associate professor at Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
Lo Sicco considers that more studies are needed to confirm the new results in a larger number of patients and people with other forms of cancer and chemotherapy treatments. Additionally, the research team cautions that patients may not have revealed mild heart-related side effects, such as minor fluid buildup, because they could have occurred without any symptoms.
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