Why do cancer patients lose their hair when they undergo chemo?

Answer 1

Radioactivity has nothing to do with it. Some, but not all, chemotherapy drugs have hair loss as a side effect. There are more than fifty chemo drugs available for medical oncologists to utilize. We pick the best combination for each type of cancer.
There are many different types of cancer. Cancer is not one disease. Chemotherapy is not one treatment. It's much more complicated than that.
The above answer about non-specificity is correct. We wish we had more drugs that only killed the cancer cells and not normal cells. Chemotherapy drugs tend to hit dividing, "growing" cells, and hair is one of the growing parts of the body that can be affected by cytotoxicity (cell killing effect) of many chemo agents.
Cancer specialist MD (retired)

Answer 2

Chemotherapy is a drug designed to kill fast-growing cells, which in the patient's case, is the cancer cells.

But unfortunately, the chemo can't tell the difference between good cells and bad cells. So the chemotherapy has the potential to kill your other fast-growing cells that are good, such as hair and blood cells.

Patients can lose all or just some of their hair when they undergo chemo and that's because of the side effects of this treatment.

Hope this helps :)

Answer 3

chemo is basically poison, killing not only the bad cancer cells, but healthy tissue and cells as well. hair follicles are not immune and a lot of patients do lose their hair. in my case, my only option was chemo that would possibly have me lose my finger and toenails....i opted out of that and thankfully around to talk about it. I'm an RN and had friends who were RN;s and physicians help me with my decision. I was totally prepared for the hair thing....but my fingernails? I had to get back to work and they frown on that sort of thing :-(

Answer 4

Chemotherapy targets all of the fast growing cells in the body. Cancer is one of the fast growing cells, but it isn't the only one. Hair and intestinal lining cells are a couple of other cells to name a few. Chemotherapy is not discriminate in the types of fast growing cells that it kills. This is why chemotherapy has side effects like someone's hair falling out or the patient having nausea and diarrhea. Those fast growing cells were killed too.

Answer 5

In addition to destroying cancer cells, chemotherapy can also damage some normal cells, especially those which normally divide more rapidly and have a high turnover.

Cells with a high turnover are those lining the mouth, stomach and bowel, as well as cells in skin, hair and bone marrow.

If these normal cells are damaged from chemotherapy, one might experience side-effects such as nausea, mouth ulcers, skin problems, weight gain or loss, tiredness or hair loss.

Answer 6

The chemicals that are used in the chemo to kill the cancer are poisons. They kill healthy tissues as well as the cancerous tissues. Not all chemo therapy cause patients to lose their hair. It depends on which chemicals are being used.

Answer 7

Yahoo search: chemotherapy telogen

http://www.hairlosstalk.com/research/alopecias/telogen_effluvium.htm

"Causes of Telogen Effluvium


"As mentioned previously, TE is typically caused by a traumatic event which occurred several months prior, in the system of the person experiencing it. The most common causes are Childbirth, Chemotherapy, Severe Infection, Severe Chronic Illness, Severe Psychological Stress, Major Surgery, Hypo or Hyperthyroidism, Crash Diets resulting in poor health or inadequate protein, and medications. It is these factors which cause a disruption in the normal hair cycle and result in a premature cessation of the Anagen (growth) phase. Hairs enter into Telogen, and within 2 to 5 months, the hair begins to fall.

"During pregnancy, more hair follicles are maintained in the growth phase. After pregnancy, a greater proportion of these hairs go into the resting phase, causing a temporary, self-correcting increased shedding of the hair. The same phenomenon can be seen after stopping birth control pills. The flu or stress can also cause Telogen effluvium."

Answer 8

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Answer 9

Anticancer drugs are made to kill the cells that has more frequent fission.
And not only the cancer cells but also the hair root cells has frequent fission.
So the hair root cells are damaged too (side effect), and patients lose their hair.

Answer 10

the chemo is basically poison and it kills the bad cells as well as the good cells within the body- the hair cells are sometimes the first to be attacked