Friday, November 18, 2005

Intensity-modulated therapy may stop hair loss

Hair Loss May Be Stopped by Intensity-Modulated Palliative Brain Radiation

By Ed Susman, MedPage Today Staff Writer

DENVER, Oct. 24 - For patients who are given palliative radiation for advanced brain metastases, an intensity-modulated therapy can save their hair, investigators reported here.

"In a patient who has a limited life expectancy, loss of hair can be a devastating social and emotional consequence," said Todd Scarbrough, M.D., a radiation oncologist at Melbourne Internal Medicine Associates, in Melbourne, Fla., who began offering the computer-assisted intensity-modulated radiation therapy in early 2005.

Intensity-modulated therapy involves a multi-field, computer-controlled conformal beam arrangement that can focus more radiotherapy on the areas where the lesions are located and limit radiation exposure to the scalp.

Hair loss article