Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
Volume 63, Issue 2 , Pages 333-336 , August 2010

Permanent chemotherapy-induced alopecia: Case report and review of the literature

  • Ben Tallon, MBChB

      Affiliations

    • Dermatopathology Section, Department of Dermatology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
    • Corresponding Author InformationReprint requests: Ben Tallon, MBChB, Skin Pathology Laboratory, Boston University School of Medicine, 609 Albany St, Boston, MA 02118-2515.
    • ,
  • Elizabeth Blanchard, MD

      Affiliations

    • Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
    • ,
  • Lynne J. Goldberg, MD

      Affiliations

    • Dermatopathology Section, Department of Dermatology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts

References 

  1. Dorr VJ. A practitioner's guide to cancer-related alopecia. Semin Oncol. 1998;25:562–570
  2. Machado M, Moreb JS, Khan SA. Six cases of permanent alopecia after various conditioning regimens commonly used in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2007;40:979–982
  3. Tosti A, Piraccini BM, Vincenzi C, Misciali C. Permanent alopecia after busulfan chemotherapy. Br J Dermatol. 2005;152:1056–1058
  4. de Jonge ME, Mathôt RA, Dalesio O, Huitema AD, Rodenhuis S, Beijnen JH. Relationship between irreversible alopecia and exposure to cyclophosphamide, thiotepa and carboplatin (CTC) in high-dose chemotherapy. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2002;30:593–597
  5. Tran D, Sinclair RD, Schwarer AP, Chow CW. Permanent alopecia following chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. Australas J Dermatol. 2000;41:106–108
  6. Ljungman P, Hassan M, Békássy AN, Ringdén O, Oberg G. Busulfan concentration in relation to permanent alopecia in recipients of bone marrow transplants. Bone Marrow Transplant. 1995;15:869–871
  7. Baker BW, Wilson CL, Davis AL, Spearing RL, Hart DN, Heaton DC, et al. Busulphan/cyclophosphamide conditioning for bone marrow transplantation may lead to failure of hair re-growth. Bone Marrow Transplant. 1991;7:43–47
  8. Vowels M, Chan LL, Giri N, Russell S, Lam-Po-Tang R. Factors affecting hair regrowth after bone marrow transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant. 1993;12:347–350
  9. Prevezas C, Matard B, Pinquier L, Reygagne P. Irreversible and severe alopecia following docetaxel or paclitaxel cytotoxic therapy for breast cancer. Br J Dermatol. 2009;160:883–885
  10. Cortes JE, Pazdur R. Docetaxel. J Clin Oncol. 1995;13:2643–2655
  11. Thatcher N, Lind M. Carboplatin in small cell lung cancer. Semin Oncol. 1990;17(1 Suppl. 2):40–48
  12. Slamon DJ, Leyland-Jones B, Shak S, Fuchs H, Paton V, Bajamonde A, et al. Use of chemotherapy plus a monoclonal antibody against HER2 for metastatic breast cancer that overexpresses HER2. N Engl J Med. 2001;344:783–792
  13. Baselga J. Clinical trials of single-agent trastuzumab (Herceptin). Semin Oncol. 2000;27(5 Suppl. 9):20–26
  14. Aoki Y, Sato T, Tsuneki I, Watanabe M, Kase H, Fujita K, et al. Docetaxel in combination with carboplatin for chemo-naive patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. Int J Gynecol Cancer. 2002;12:704–709
  15. Hassan M, Ljungman P, Bulme P, et al. Busulphan bioavailability. Blood. 1994;84:2144–2150
  16. Sinclair R. Diffuse hair loss: Anagen effluvium. In:  Sinclair R,  Banfield C,  Dawber R editor. Handbook of diseases of the hair and scalp. Oxford: Blackwell Science; 1999;p. 70–74
  17. Bleiker TO, Nicolaou N, Traulsen J, Hutchinson PE. ‘Atrophic telogen effluvium’ from cytotoxic drugs and a randomized controlled trial to investigate the possible protective effect of pretreatment with a topical vitamin D analogue in humans. Br J Dermatol. 2005;153:103–112
  18. Bayer-Garner IB, Sanderson RD, Smoller BR. Syndecan-1 is strongly expressed in the anagen hair follicle outer root sheath and in the dermal papilla but expression diminishes with involution of the hair follicle. Am J Dermatopathol. 2002;24:484–489
  19. Peters EM, Stieglitz MG, Liezman C, Overall RW, Nakamura M, Hagen E, et al. P75 neurotrophin receptor-mediated signaling promotes human hair follicle regression (catagen). Am J Pathol. 2006;168:221–234

 Funding sources: None.

 Conflicts of interest: None declared.

PII: S0190-9622(09)00823-8

doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2009.06.063

Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
Volume 63, Issue 2 , Pages 333-336 , August 2010

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution