Study Explores Lotion for Permanent Hair Loss in Cancer Survivors

Women who have permanently lost hair following cancer treatment are to be treated with a topical lotion in a new Korean study.

The trial, which is being overseen by the Samsung Medical Centre in South Korea, will involve women aged between 19 and 70 who have permanent, chemotherapy-induced hair loss to see how they respond to treatment with a lotion called CG428, a product made by Swiss company Legacy Healthcare which is already in production.

Help during recovery

CG428 is usually marketed as a product aimed at speeding up the recovery of hair in people who have finished their chemotherapy treatment. According to the CG428 website, “a study suggested that the period of baldness, from maximum baldness to first regrowth, which is usually 20 weeks, was reduced by 5 to 16 weeks in subjects using the product.”

The Korean study will be double-blind trial of approximately 32 people and will focus on breast cancer survivors who will self-administer the product (or a placebo) for six months. The primary goal is to assess the recovery rate of hair thickness after six months of treatment using a Folliscope. The estimated completion date is August 2017.

Describing their intentions on their application, the research team state that: “The research team at Cancer Education Center at Samsung Comprehensive Cancer Center has studied CIA (Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia) and its impact on distress and psychosocial well-being since 2008. We found that more than half of the breast cancer patients experienced higher distress due to CIA, during cancer treatment, and this distress was strongly associated with negative body image, overall health status, and psychosocial well-being.”

Some hair loss even after six months

In a recent study by the team, skin and hair change patterns before, during and six months after chemotherapy in 61 volunteers was assessed. Their observations were that the majority of the patients still experienced some degree of CIA at six months after completion of chemotherapy. “Permanent CIA lacks recognition and has been underserved regardless of patients' needs,” they state.

The product they are using, CG428, is based on a botanical blend which Legacy Healthcare have named Cellium. Composed of four botanicals (the Korean team state that these are Alliums cape L., Citrus lemon L., Theorem cacao L. and Paullina cabaña), the treatment, say the researchers, “may mitigate the impact of protracted or permanent CIA in cancer survivors by restoring a normalized apoptotic process of hair follicular cells and reducing the acute, as well as chronic inflammation in the scalp, two issues that may remain unsettled following anticancer treatment.”