Category: Hair Diseases

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In the News – Interview with Dr. Christiano in NY Times – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the New York Times article:

Angela Christiano, 45, an associate professor of dermatology and genetics at Columbia University Medical Center, studies hair. Last summer, she announced the discovery of the genes implicated in alopecia areata, the hair-loss disease that she herself suffers from. The interviewer spoke for two hours in her Washington Heights laboratory and then later on the telephone. An edited version of the two conversations follows.

Q. When did you first learn that you had alopecia?

A. In 1995, a time of big transitions in my life. After doing highly successful postdoctoral research on genetic blistering skin diseases at Jefferson Medical College, I’d arrived here at Columbia to start my own laboratory. I had just turned 30. I was getting a divorce. When you start your first lab, a researcher is expected to find something different from their postdoc work. For my first six months here, I sat thinking, “What am I going to do when I grow up?”

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Dr. ChristianoRead the full interview [login required] — Living and Studying Alopecia

Dr. Christiano is among the top doctors in her field, and her advances made in the understanding of alopecia areata (and thus future treatments) are to be applauded. I particularly admire her, because she is a person who identified a problem and made the decision to understand it as thoroughly as anyone.

The NY Times article may require you to login (it’s free to create an account), but it’s a good read for anyone interested in Dr. Christiano’s story.

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Hair Loss InformationIn the News – Cold Caps to Help Cancer Patients Keep Their Hair? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

A handful of San Francisco breast cancer patients are donning frigid skullcaps to test a device designed to keep hair tightly rooted during chemotherapy. Researchers hope the study, run by UC San Francisco and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., will eventually lead to Food and Drug Administration approval for the chilly caps.

There is now no way to hang on to one’s tresses during chemo for any kind of cancer, says study leader Hope Rugo, an oncologist at UCSF. The prospect of baldness is distressing to many patients, particularly women. Some choose a less-drastic drug regimen more likely to leave hair follicles alone, potentially at the cost of getting the best possible treatment. It’s a fact that women frequently make treatment decisions based on risk to their locks, says Rugo’s colleague Michelle Melisko, another oncologist investigating scalp-cooling systems.

The caps’ low temperature, 41 degrees Fahrenheit, keeps poisonous chemotherapy drugs out of the hair follicles. But some doctors worry that in so doing, it makes it more likely that cancer will take root in the scalp.

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Read the full story at the LA Times — Cooling caps tested to help cancer patients keep hair

Freezing the scalp to prevent chemo-related hair loss has been around for 30 or more years, though it doesn’t work for everyone and most people will still see some loss.

On the bright side, the article points out that “the results from 53 studies using various devices and methods were mostly positive“.

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Hair Loss InformationReader Says All Effective Hair Loss Treatments Are Potential Carcinogens – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I hypothesise that ALL effective hair loss treatments are potentially carcinogenic in vulnerable individuals. Literally ALL of the factors which are being upregulated to result in HAIR GROWTH, are also factors which are all upregulated in CANCER.

Think about it, Chemotherapy often results in hair loss. Why is this? It is because it is doing the exact opposite to what Hair growth treatments are doing. For hair growth to occur there has to be complex release of various substances, and cell proliferation. On a simplistic level (and there is sooo much more to it), cell proliferation is going to increase the chance of carcinogenic cells developing. Chemotherapy causes CELL SENESCENCE (cell death) which is why the hair falls out. To cause cell senescence various substances, growth factors, etc have to be DOWN REGULATED. These are the very same substances which are UPREGULATED in hair treatments.

eg. Minoxidil: Minoxidil is a potassium (K+) channel opener. The opening of K+ channels causes cell proliferation. Role of Voltage-gated Potassium Channels in Cancer

Laser Helmet – works by opening K+ channels. Spiro is especially lethal – Oestrogen agonist in breast. Tumours in rats. Upregulation of ALL the factors linked with cancer and what helps it proliferate, eg VEGF, EGF, FGF, MMP, and on and on.

Activation of SRC Tyrosine Kinase — From wiki: Tyrosine kinases add phosphate groups to the amino acid tyrosine in the target protein. They can cause cancer by turning the receptor permanently on (constitutively), even without signals from outside the cell. And specifically SRC Tyrosine Kinase.

What are your thoughts on the cancer – artificially induced hair growth link?

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Life has its risks. Do you know how much radiation you get when you fly across the country in a commercial aircraft (see here)? Regular flights may increase the risks of a variety of cancers, but if your quality of life means that to bond with your family you must fly to the other coast, would you rather stay safe and lock yourself in the basement where the radiation levels are much safer?

We all have decisions in life, and with regard to hair, the various treatments available to prevent or reverse hair loss have not been shown to be carcinogenic. It’s your choice!

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Finasteride and Prostate Cancer – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Doc, i have another question. Since I am a healthy 25 year old (who takes propecia), with no family history of prostate cancer, does that mean that I should start having annual PSA and prostate exams right now at this young age as well?

I have have another question. Does finasteride directly causes high grade malignancy in some patients. or does it just delay the diagnosis of cancer cells which if left end up being high grade?(meaning that finasteride doesn’t cause cancer itself but just delays the diagnosis of early stage prostate cancer which later become more aggresive).

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At 25 years old, it would be very, very unusual for you to develop prostate cancer.

With regard to the risk of developing a high grade malignancy from taking finasteride, I would doubt that the answers are in yet. The finding of the higher grade malignancies reported may reflect prostate shrinkage. We would need to know what the survival rate of these men who have reported higher grade malignancies is. If those that have the reports have a higher mortality rate than other men with known cancer of the prostate, then I’d believe that there is real risk, not just interpretive risks classified by pathologists.

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Finasteride, FDA, and Prostate Cancer Prevention – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

One of my favorite BaldingBlog contributors (who shall remain nameless) sent in some great insights about FDA advisory committees. We’ve previously posted his thoughts on the LaserComb, clinical trials, and FDA trials. This post will be used in the future as a point of reference:

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    Dr Rassman,
    Given the many questions related to consideration of FDA expansion of the finasteride label for prevention of prostate cancer, your readers may wish to access the data themselves and better understand the process (which becomes more transparent and less “conspiratorial”).

     
    The recent finasteride and dutasteride opinions noted in the Dec 3 Balding Blog posting are not from the FDA, but are from an independent group termed the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee. The committee is composed of 18 voting members (and several non-voting members) – mainly oncologists, with some statisticians, epidemiologists, and a patient representative, the former mainly from academic institutions.

    The FDA eventually considers the committees opinion in approval or withdrawal of drugs (or “expansion” of a drug label for a new indication). The FDA usually follows the recommendations of advisory committees, as the committees’ recommendations are presumably “data-driven” and the FDA typically comes to similar conclusions. However, as in the case of many decisions that are split or where significant differences in interpretation of risk-benefit exist, the FDA has occasionally approved or rejected a drug against the recommendation of an advisory panel. Examples of split Advisory decisions (where a majority vote did occur) are the opinions this year related to several weight loss drugs.

    The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 17-0 against expanding the label for finasteride to include prevention of prostate cancer. A unanimous vote by FDA Advisory Committees is rare. I have no special knowledge of the meeting. This decision was based in part on data from the 19,000 patient Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial and the belief that the data did not support the risk benefit profile (i.e. possibility of increased aggressiveness of tumor did not outweigh reduced risk of low-grade tumors). As with all such committee meetings, which are open to the public (including listening via live webcasts), the transcript will be published and available within a few weeks at the FDA’s web site.

    However, interested readers can go to the FDA web site now and access the Briefing Document and presentations given to Committee members from the drug company seeking approval. This information is public and typically posted several days before the meeting. The meeting was held on Dec 1, but the date of posting was Nov 26 (see under Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee). The info can be found at the following links [note – all are PDF files]:

  1. Draft Agenda for the December 1, 2010 Meeting of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee
  2. Briefing Information for the December 1, 2010 Meeting of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee
  3. Draft Questions for the November 30, 2010 Meeting of the Pediatric Oncology Subcommittee of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee
  4. Merck Briefing Information for the December 01, 2010 Meeting of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee
  5. FDA Briefing Information for the December 01, 2010 Meeting of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee
  6. GlaxoSmithKline Briefing Information for the December 01, 2010 Meeting of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee
  7. Draft Questions for the December 1, 2010 Meeting of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee
  8. Draft Meeting Roster for the December 1, 2010 Meeting of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee
  9. Webcast Information for the December 1, 2010 Meeting of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee

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ACell and DUPA? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi doctor,
Great site. My question is about ACell and all the other in development treatments like it. Will this in theory work for those who have dupa or fpb? I mean I understand the are years away and a big ? If they will even work. But if they do will the help those individuals as well. Eventhough there us miniaturization in the donor, or is there no hope for us?

Please answer… Thanks again.

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Clearly, ACell will not impact DUPA (diffuse unpatterned alopecia) or female pattern hair loss unless it was used in conjunction with an auto-cloning procedure. We need to take one step at a time. We still need to see how well ACell works when used in an auto-cloning fashion. We do not know if you pluck a hair from the permanent zone that is not miniaturized in a person with DUPA or female balding, if that hair will grow at all. How it would be compared with a plucked hair in a non-DUPA patient is yet unknown.

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Hair Loss InformationCan I Have MPB and Another Condition That Causes Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hey Dr Rassman
I was just wondering if a patient has MPB does that rule them out for other condition such as DUPA or alopecia areta/univeralis, and if not do those conditions have a genetic component? Like if no family members have them can they still occur?

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Anything is possible, but you must think of what is most probable. I have seen patients who had diffuse unpatterned alopecia (DUPA) as well as genetic hair loss that looked like male pattern baldness. I also also seen alopecia areata patients who had male pattern baldness. So one doesn’t automatically rule out the other.

I am not certain on the genetic component when comparing DUPA to male pattern baldness or alopecia areata, etc. We (the medical community) still do not understand male pattern baldness as we should.

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High White Blood Cell Count is Causing My Female Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello, I am a 54 year old woman and I am loosing my hair, this has been ongoing for years I have had many blood tests and I have been to see a dermatologist, tricologist ect. The only relevant result I have had is that I have a very high white blood cell count which can be killing my hair.

I don’t feel ill and the doctors are unsure why I have such a high white cell count. Do you have any suggestions on how I can lower my white blood count? I also use minoxodil and the lazer comb, I have recently started taking a DHT blocker too. Any information would be appreciated.

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I really do not know what you would consider a high white blood cell count, but you also need to understand a high white blood cell count really should have nothing to do with hair (the exception is in cases of alopecia areata). Generally, a high white blood cell count can mean anything from an infection to cancer (leukemia), but please don’t jump to conclusions thinking you have cancer.

It seems like there’s a lack of proper communication, because if your doctor left you with thinking your white blood cell count is causing your hair loss, you need to setup an appointment with him/her so you can discuss this further.

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In the News – Head Paint for Cancer Patients – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

Before cancer treatment could take her hair, a Greeley [Colorado] woman decided to give cancer a new look.

Kay Anderson was declared cancer-free in February, 15 months after discovering a lump in her breast. Just before she started cancer treatment, prior to losing her hair, she took control of her situation. “We all went out to the garage and had a head shaving party,” said Anderson.

Soon after her treatment ended, instead of letting her hair grow back, she let her daughter, Tiffany Koehn, paint it back on. Koehn paints different designs on her mom’s shaved head every two or three days.

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Head paintingRead the full story — Woman Gives Cancer Recovery Colorful Look

For those that go through chemotherapy, as if the cancer itself wasn’t traumatic enough, losing your hair can be even more devastating. These women are not letting cancer take away their spirit, and so I wanted to share this inspiring story.

Photo source: Citizen-Times.com

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I Have a Tumor in a Testicle, Will That Effect My Hair Loss or DHT? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

firstly thanks for spending so much of your time giving us advice we can trust this really is a great resource.

ive been on propecia for 3 years with good results. ive been diagnosed with a tumour in one of my testicles and need to have it removed next week. Could you please tell me if you think this will have any effect on my hairloss and DHT levels. would just like to know what to expect be it good or bad thanks again.

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Lance ArmstrongI would defer this question to your doctor who is treating you. Personally, I would worry more about the tumor on the testicle over hair loss.

Take a person like bicyclist Lance Armstrong who had one testicle removed for cancer. I’m sure the second testicle got larger and compensated for the body’s need for testosterone. One testicle will produce the same amount of hormones that two testicles would produce if one was removed for any reason.