HAIR loss is one of the most distressing side effects for cancer patients
undergoing chemotherapy. People are sometimes so worried about it that they
don鈥檛 come forward for cancer screening. But soon a cream or gel could prevent
patients going bald.
Stephen Davis and his colleagues at the drugs company Glaxo Wellcome in
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, applied a drug called GW8510 to the
scalps of rats before treatment with Etoposide, a common chemotherapy. Half the
animals suffered no hair loss, and it was significantly reduced in the rest.
Rats that didn鈥檛 receive any GW8510, however, lost most of their hair. 鈥淚t was
just stunning,鈥� Davis says.
Most chemotherapy drugs attack rapidly dividing cells. Unfortunately, they
kill not only fast-growing cancers but also healthy cells that divide rapidly,
such as those surrounding the hair follicles. This is why people鈥檚 hair falls
out.
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GW8510 works by temporarily preventing cells from dividing. When the compound
is rubbed onto the scalp, it penetrates the cells near the surface and
inactivates a critical enzyme called CDK2. Without CDK2, the cells remain stuck
in one phase of the cell cycle and are thus protected from chemotherapy
drugs.
The drug will now undergo clinical trials in humans. Davis expects that it
will be supplied in a cream or clear gel that can be applied like shampoo or
hair gel. Patients will simply rub it onto their scalp before each chemotherapy
treatment and wash it out several hours later.
鈥淭he work is very well done,鈥� says William Hait, director of the Cancer
Institute of New Jersey. He expects the treatment to be simpler and more
effective than the 鈥渋ce helmets鈥� often used during chemotherapy. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just part
of a whole effort by researchers around the world to get involved not only in
curing the disease, but also in making the treatments a lot more tolerable.鈥�
