Jame Abraham on the Patient Experience of Scalp Cooling Devices

Jame Abraham, MD, Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center discusses the patient experience of scalp cooling devices to prevent chemotherapy-induced hair loss.

Abraham was a researcher on an interim analysis of the Orbis Paxman Hair Loss Prevention System, presented at the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which showed that 50% of patients in the scalp cooling group retained their hair. He expressed that patients with histories of migraines or headaches were excluded from the trial in the worry that they would be unable to tolerate the cold of the device. There was also the issue of the extra time using the device takes. However, if a patient is very concerned about chemotherapy-induced hair loss, Abraham stated that this device was a good intervention.