A cancer diagnosis is quite possibly one of the most terrifying things anyone can experience. To make it worse, cancer treatments like chemotherapy can be traumatic, especially since hair loss is involved. But this depressing side effect may soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new system that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just cleared for clinical trials.
DigniCap from Dignitana looks like a helmet and works by cooling the scalp to restrict the blood vessels around the hair follicles to help slow down the poison from absorbing into the area. A touch screen refrigeration and control unit monitors the scalp temperature and delivers a cooling liquid into the inner cap. There’s also an outer cap that’s designed to keep the inner cap cool and to absorb condensation.
This “cooling cap” has already been successful in international trials, so experts are excited to see the results from the US trial. The US trial will be conducted on patients with either stage I or stage II breast cancer who are undergoing standard chemotherapy.
