For cancer patients, hair loss due to treatment is painful.
Although hair usually grows back within a few months of ending treatment, 56 percent of patients in a 2019 study experienced hair loss as the worst side effect of chemotherapy. This condition can even force some people to refuse cancer treatment altogether.
One way to limit hair loss is a scalp cooling technique in which the patient wears a special headgear attached to a machine that circulates a cooling liquid to reduce the blood flow of the medicated hair follicles. can be done
But scalp cooling has its drawbacks. One is that the machines are large and installed in one place, which means that patients will continue to be treated for hair loss before, during and after each chemo session.
Recently, the helmet, called lily, is completely portable, allowing patients to walk away from the hospital after treatment. Patients usually only have to wear the helmet for 90 minutes immediately after treatment.
It uses pressure rather than cooling which means it doesn’t need a pre-cooling period before treatment starts, meaning it works faster.
This helmet also aims to improve another important factor and that is the comfort that patients feel during treatment.
