History
Since the late 1960s, several techniques have been tested to prevent chemotherapy-induced hair loss with varying success. Some examples are scalp tourniquets; medicaments with biological agents such as folic acid and Minoxidil; and scalp hypothermia(cooling). Tourniquets decrease drug supply to the hair follicles by using pressure to occlude the superficial blood vessels supplying the scalp (Dorr, 1998). Though scalp tourniquets were deemed effective by some researchers, others reported this method to be time-consuming and give poor treatment outcome (Batchelor, 2001).
Progress in the understanding and prevention of chemotherapy-induced hair loss is modest and the number of accurate clinical studies is still low. According to Breed (2004), more progress has been made in understanding and preventing other side effects of the chemotherapy treatment, such as nausea, vomiting, bone marrow toxicity, than chemotherapy-induced hair loss.
Scalp hypothermia
In recent years, research findings indicate that scalp cooling is more effective than other methods in preventing alopecia (David & Speechley 1987, Grevelman & Breed, 2007). Scalp hypothermia has an advantage over other methods in that it also inhibits the cellular uptake of a drug that is temperature-dependent (Dean et al, 1979).
