The Truth About Chemotherapy Side Effects: Supportive Care and Alternatives That Help

The Truth About Chemotherapy Side Effects: Supportive Care and Alternatives That Help

Myth: Chemotherapy always has bad side effects
Fact: While chemotherapy can have side effects, supportive medications and alternative medicines can help reduce them.

Supportive care medications, including WBC growth factors, antiemetics, and bone-modifying medications, are an important element of cancer therapy.

Most of the alternative or complementary medicines a patient might consider taking fall into one of two categories:

• Mind/body therapies like yoga, tai chi, and meditation.
• Therapies taken orally, topically, or intravenously like traditional Chinese medicines, vitamins and minerals, and botanicals or herbs.
• These may improve comfort and quality of life—if they aren’t substituted for and don’t interfere with proven cancer treatments.

Myth: Hair loss is inevitable with chemotherapy
Fact: Not every chemotherapy drug causes hair loss, and some only cause thinning. Scalp cooling can also help reduce hair loss.

Scalp cooling therapy uses a Food and Drug Administration-approved cooling cap that covers the patient's hair and has cold liquid circulating through it. The cap is connected to a computer that maintains the temperature of the liquid at around 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The cap has a covering that keeps it in place and the temperature constant.

Scalp cooling reduces the damage that chemotherapy causes to hair follicles. When cooled, blood vessels in the scalp constrict, reducing blood flow to hair follicles. This restricts the amount of chemotherapy medication that enters hair follicle cells.

Usually, patients wear the cap for 30 minutes before their chemotherapy treatments, throughout the chemotherapy session and for 90 to 120 minutes afterward. A study conducted on women using the cooling caps while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer showed that 66% lost 50% or less of their hair. This was compared to women who didn't use the caps, with all women in that group losing more than 50% of their hair.

Side effects of scalp cooling therapy are minor and may include chills, headaches, scalp irritation, and neck and shoulder discomfort.

Talk with your oncologist about using scalp cooling therapy to preserve your hair during chemotherapy treatments.

‍