The world’s first Scalp Cooling Summit took place digitally on 5th of May. Hosted by Paxman, the Summit bought together innovative world leaders in oncology and research to talk about their scalp cooling experience and learn from each other’s perspectives, advancing the future of side effect management in cancer care. What can our cancer centres in Britain learn from those pushing the boundaries of supportive cancer care internationally?
We are familiar with the classic media representation of a cancer patient, typically with a bald head or a carefully arranged scarf. Hair loss as a result of chemotherapy is one of the most feared side effects of cancer treatment, a fear that causes as many as 8% of patients to refuse chemotherapy.1 For those that accept their treatment plans, it can still cause incredible trauma, with the reality being long-term periods of complete hair loss, with potentially a period of many years before a patient returns to their prechemo hair. While this continues to be a reality for many patients, it may not have to be this way
Scalp cooling can reduce hair loss significantly during chemotherapy treatment and is available across the world, and widely in the UK.
However, awareness of scalp cooling is low and, unfortunately, the treatment isn’t always embraced by the medical community. This is why the Scalp Cooling Summit was devised – to help increase awareness of scalp cooling while pushing the boundaries around scalp cooling usage – with the ultimate aim that as many patients as possible have the choice to take control of chemotherapy-induced alopecia.
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