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Asked by 596thaf37 to Christie, Dan, David, Dawn, Sian on 20 Jun 2016.
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Christie Waddington answered on 20 Jun 2016:
During some cancer treatments (not all of them) you can lose your hair. Cancer turns off the cell’s regulatory networks so that it can rapidly divide and spread. The chemotherapy treatment targets all cells that are rapidly dividing, both healthy cells and cancer cells which includes hair follicles as these are some of the fastest-growing cells in the body (they divide every 24-72hrs). Because of this, patients lose their hair when they have certain chemotherapy drugs. Some examples for breast cancer include:
Adriamycin – causes complete hair loss during the first few weeks of treatment, sometimes including eyebrows and eyelashes.
Methotrexate – causes hair to thin, but still keep some hair.
5-fluorouracil – causes minimal hair loss.
Taxol – causes complete hair loss all over the body.
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Dawn Lau answered on 20 Jun 2016:
Christie has a good answer, but I’d like to add that every patient has a different reaction to chemotherapy drugs, and some people lose hair, some people don’t. Sometimes you don’t lose all your hair but it becomes very thin. In most cases, once the chemotherapy treatment is stopped, the hair will grow back.
Also, hair loss isn’t just caused by chemotherapy drugs! Some people have an autoimmune disease that attacks the hair follicles, causing them to lose hair. Again, this can be complete or partial hair loss.
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