Penguin Cold Caps to reduce hair looss during Chemo??

Specialties Oncology

Published

Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

So a friend of mine's mum found out a few months ago that she has breast cancer and his family was just devastated over it.

I know that this is a personal inquiry about an 'alternative' treatment but I decided to go ahead and post it here out of my own curiosity as an RN.

For those that have worked at Oncology Units, I am sure you have heard of the Penguin Cold Caps Therapy since apparently it has been out there since the 80's.

Basically a cap is frozen to a certain temperature and is worn during and after chemotherapy to cool down the hair follicles to prevent the drug from reaching them, therefore reducing or completely preventing hair loss.

A lot of the websites and articles I have read states that it has great feedback since the women feel better about themselves (reduced low self esteem, depression due to body image issues) and some claimed that since they had their hair during their cancer treatment, they felt better at ease about their looks which apparently helped with their will power to beat cancer.

On the other hand doctors state that since it is preventing the drugs from reaching the hair follicles, it can also increase their risk of still having that cancer due to the possibility that it has metastasized up to the hair follicle cells.

This was all that I got so far and am hoping to get a better feedback from the experienced Oncology nurses in the forum.

Any info is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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I have never heard of this. Can you cite the link and evidence regarding this therapy?

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I haven't heard of this either and have not seen it in practice. However, I would rationalize that it's along the same effects as when we give popsicles to patients during certain chemo infusions to minimize the severity of stomatitis/mucositis

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nursing.

So Im not the only one then.. I hope they dont mind me posting the main websites link here. http://penguincoldcaps.com/how-it-works/

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i have seen two patients who have not lost hair during chemo from tthe cold caps but we do not apply the caps or do anything with them for that matter it is handled by the patient to administer and change ect. The patients were very happy with the results

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We are going to start using the cold caps during infusions at my hospital.

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I'm in pediatric oncology and have never heard of them. Has anyone heard of them being used in the pediatric population?

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

​I've heard of them, but haven't seen them used by anyone. From what I've heard, patients still wind up losing a significant amount of hair; not really worth the expense.

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Specializes in PCU, cardiology, oncology.

I have seen them.I work outpt chemo. The patient had to deal with it, we didn't touch them. It looked like a major hassle, she had to bring a cooler and change it frequently. From what I saw, it didn't work well at all, very patchy hair loss. Also, theoretically, they risk scalp mets.

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There are 4 cold cap systems that exist currently. Two are only available outside of the US-The Dignicap and Paxman. The two available in the US are Elastogel caps and Penguin caps. The Elastogel can be purchased. The Penguin caps are only available for rental by the month.The cold caps work two-fold. One it creates vasoconstriction, reducing the uptake of the drugs to the hair follicles, and 2, it slows the metabolism of the uptake. They really do work! I've helped dozens of women with saving their hair. It might seem like a trivial worry to some but when it's you facing the possibility of baldness, and looking and feeling sick, you might think otherwise. It truly provides many positive benefits. When a woman has her hair she feels more herself with a brighter positive sense of well being. Medical professionals who discount the value of this technology are those who have failed to do 5 minutes of research. I have attached just a few of many articles on scalp cooling.

Care for Hair

Scalp cooling does not pose a risk for scalp metastases

Scalp cooling does not pose a risk for scalp metastases. ecancer - News

The six studies, involving 1593 patients, who evaluated the incidence risk of scalp metastases, showed that 10 patients (0.6%) developed scalp metastases. None, however, was found to be an isolated site of first metastasis.

Presentation, Impact and Prevention of Chemotherapy-induced Hair Loss

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/737144_1

Prevention of chemotherapy-induced hair loss by scalp cooling

http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/352.full

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