Effect of Cooling Cap on Controlling Alopecia for Women Undergoing Chemotherapy

Abstract

Background: Alopecia is an unpleasant side effect of chemotherapy that, on occasion, might cause patients to refuse treatment. The use of a cooling cap can help prevent chemotherapy-related alopecia. The aim of the study: is to determine the effect of cooling cap on controlling alopecia for women undergoing chemotherapy. Materials and methods: The study design used was a quasi-experimental research design. A purposive sample of 60 adult female patients, at the Oncology Center and Oncology clinic in Minia University age, ranged from 21 to 60 years old, with cancer and scheduled to be treated with adjuvant chemotherapy for the first time after curative surgery who met the inclusion criteria will be divided randomly 30 subjects in study group and 30 subjects in the control group, the study group were received cooling cap while they receiving their chemotherapy cycle while the control group received the routine hospital care. 2 tools used to include structure interview questionnaire and physiologic measurement tool for hair loss. The results of this study: There were 43.3% &3.3% have grade 4 (total alopecia) from the control and study group (CCG) respectively after the six cycles of chemotherapy. There is a highly significant difference between the two groups regarding grades of hair loss and there is good hair preservation by 86.7% in the study group (cooling cap group (CCG)) compared to 16.7% in the control group where P=0.000. Conclusion: The cooling cap is effective in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced alopecia in cancer patients. Recommendation: The cooling cap is effective and should be applied for cancer patients during chemotherapy cycles thus the cooling cap system should be available in governmental hospitals and the women with cancer who take adjuvant chemotherapy should be encouraged to use cooling cap to reduce total alopecia. Further psychological, clinical, and biological research is needed to improve the effect, tolerance, time, and side effects of the cooling procedure.