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Upstate Cancer Center Offers Method To Prevent Hair Loss Scalp Cooling Machine Prevents Hair Loss For Cancer Patients

By Janelle Pottinger

Janelle Pottinger: Co-founder of The Cool Head Project Fund, Katy Moses, lost one of her best friends Liz Formoza to breast cancer in Feb. 2020
The second time Formoza was diagnosed with breast cancer it was stage 4 and she had to do chemotherapy. According to Moses, Formoza didn’t want her children to see her lose her hair and wanted to keep some sense of normalcy.
Moses says wanting to keep your hair during chemo is much bigger than vanity.

Katy Moses: I think it’s important that people understand that wanting to keep your hair is not just about vanity, its really not. It’s about looking at yourself in the mirror and feeling normal when you’re going through something that nobody should have to go through.”

Pottinger: The scalp cooling machine cools the hair follicles, which helps prevent the chemo from traveling to your scalp and causing hair loss.
According to Moses, as of right now 20 people have used the machine and the project fund paid for 17 of those patients.
Moses says, they decided to help with the cost because patients are already going through enough.

Moses: What we were finding is that people weren’t using it. people that wanted to use it, when they found out the cost they decided not to use it.”

Pottinger: According to Oncologist Dr. Andy Carden depending on the chemotherapy agent that patients use, hair loss is not always a side effect.
Dr. Carden says there are multiple factors that decide when someone undergoes chemo.

Dr. Andy Carden: It depends where the breast cancer started and the stage depending whether we would recommend chemotherapy.”

Pottinger: Upstate Cancer Center has one Paxman machine as of right now, The Cool Head Project Fund hopes that more machines can be available to this facility in the near future. In Syracuse Janelle Pottinger N-C-C News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Co-founder of  The Cool Head Project Fund, Katy Moses lost her best friend Liz Formoza in February 2019 to breast cancer.

After Formoza was diagnosed a second time, this time with Stage 4 breast cancer she began using a scalp cooling machine that helps prevent hair loss in patients who take chemotherapy.

According to Moses, Formoza did not want her children to see her lose her hair and she wanted to have some sense of normalcy while battling cancer. Formoza first started using the scalp cooling machine in Boston and she wanted to make sure other people had access to this equipment as well. Moses said this is how The Cool Head Project Fund started.

“I didn’t even know this existed, I didn’t know scalp cooling was a thing and I knew for sure that we didn’t have it here in Syracuse.” Moses said. “So she and I talked a lot about how could we get this to Syracuse and how could we make people aware of it and how could we help people to afford it.”

Upstate Cancer Center is the first cancer center in Syracuse to have a scalp cooling machine as of right now. They got the machine in 2019 because of Formoza. So far 20 people have used the machine and the Cool Head Fund Project paid for 17 of those patients.

The Paxman scalp cooling machine is not covered by most insurance and can cost approximately $1,332 on average per patient.  The highest it could cost is approximately $2,200 despite how long a patient may need to use it. According to Moses, patients were turning this machine down because they could not afford it.

“So we said you know what? Let’s just pay 100%.” Moses said. “We’re not going to ask people to fill out an application, we’re not going to ask people if they can pay for it on their own. If they ask for us to pay for it we’re just going to do it.”

According to Patient and Customer  Liasion for Paxman, Shawna Mayberry, the Paxman system is generally successful with 50% or more of the patients. This percentage depends on the type of chemo the patient is using, how closely the patient follows protocol, their DNA and a few other factors.

Hematologist and oncologist, Dr. Andy Carden said there are types of chemotherapy that have a lower risk of the patient losing their hair, however, it may not always be the most effective option.

“There are some chemotherapy agents that don’t cause alopecia,” Carden said. “But as an oncologist, we also want to give the best regime to give them the best outcome. Often times, the patient might not have the option of trying to avoid alopecia because they want to choose what’s going to bring them to the highest chance of being cured or long term remission.”

According to Mayberry, there are over 300 systems in the U.S., and this number changes weekly. Paxman originates from the United Kingdom and has been around for more than 30 years in the U.K. This machine was first made available in the U.S. in 2017 when it received FDA clearance.

Scalp cooling works by reducing the temperature of the scalp immediately before, during and after chemotherapy. This reduces the blood flow to the hair follicles, which can prevent or minimize hair loss. It decreases the metabolic activity of the cells in the hair follicle causing a more general reduction of the chemo drugs localized to the scalp.

The Cool Head Project Fund is hosting an event this Friday in Armory Square to help raise money so they can continue to cover the bills for every patient that decides to use it. Tickets are $150 and live music and food will also be a part of the fundraiser.

 

 

 

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