Prevention of chemotherapy-induced alopecia by scalp cooling: the study of perfusion and tissue metabolism

Hair loss is regarded as a traumatic side effects of chemotherapy in cancer treatments. A reduction in tissue metabolism as a response to the hypothermia could simply make hair follicles less susceptible to drug damage with scalp cooling. In this study, a detailed three-dimensional finite element of human head model is used to investigate the changes in blood flow due to heat transfer and perfusion during the cooling process. Our finite element model consists of scalp, skull (trabecular and cortical bones), all meningeal layers, flax, tentorium, and the brain. The results showed that when the temperature and mass flow of coolant are 0.0 and 0.04 kg/s, respectively, the temperature of the scalp decreases from 34.3 to 9.68 within 50 min; and then, perfusion drops down to 12% of normal value. Mutual effect of heat transfer and perfusion during scalp cooling will result in the reducing tissue blood to %30. Such temperature drop will lead to vasoconstriction and reduction of metabolism which will diminish both drug supply and drug uptakes.