• Question: When you have chemotheropy why does your hair fall out?

    Asked by alisonkatie to Gioia, Iain, Jo, Leo, Mariam on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Joanna Watson

      Joanna Watson answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Chemotherapy for cancer works by killing cells that are dividing rapidly. Unfortunately, the drugs can’t tell the difference between cancer cells which are dividing a lot because they are broken – and hair follicle cells which always divide rapidly to grow new hair.

    • Photo: Gioia Cherubini

      Gioia Cherubini answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      The main difference between cancer and normal cells is that cancer cells divide quickly, so the easiest way that we have to target cancer is to kill the cells that divide quickly. While most of the cells in our body don’t divide anymore, there are some that keep dividing throughout all our life, like hair cell. That’s why chemotherapy kills also hair cells and the hair fall out

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      It doesn’t happen with all chemotherapy. The reason is because many chemotherapies target cells which are rapidly dividing. However, it is not just cancer cells which divide rapidly. Cells in the hair follicals, as well as in the gut and the immune system also divide rapidly. This is why people on chemotherapy can lose their hair, find it difficult to digest food, and easily pick up illnesses.

    • Photo: Leo Garcia

      Leo Garcia answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Because the toxic drugs in chemotherapy attack rapidly dividing cells in the body – which includes, of course, cancer cells, but also hair follicles. That’s why people having chemotherapy often suffer hair loss.

    • Photo: Mariam Orme

      Mariam Orme answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      It’s very hard to treat cancer because it’s difficult to find ways to kill cancer cells without killing the normal healthy cells in your body.
      Most chemotherapy drugs target cells that are dividing fast, because that’s one of the characteristics of cancer cells. But there are some normal cells that also divide fast, and these cells are killed by the chemotherapy too. These fast-dividing cells include hair follicle cells and cells in your gut, so chemotherapy makes your hair fall out and makes you feel sick.

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