Guide To Chemotherapy Side Effects

Hair Loss

It is common for an individual to experience hair loss as an unwanted side effect when they undergo chemotherapy. We know chemotherapy uses drugs that target and kill all cells in the body undergoing the process of cell division. This method is effective at treating cancer because cancerous cells are almost always in a state of rapid cell division. Chemotherapy drugs cannot distinguish a dividing healthy cell from a dividing cancerous cell. The hair on the scalp and body comes from skin structures with small blood vessels. In healthy individuals, the hair on the scalp grows around half an inch every month. This rapid growth occurs because an individual's hair follicles are some of the fastest dividing cells in their body. Fair follicles go through the cell division process every twenty-three to seventy-two hours. This rapid division means the cells that make up the hair follicles are almost always in the cell division process, and will be affected in a similar way to how cancerous cells in the body are affected. Chemotherapy detects cell division in the hair cells and destroys them. This mechanism causes a patient's hair to fall out. The extent of hair loss is determined by the dosage and frequency of chemotherapy in a patient.

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