Why cancer treatment may cause burns And hair loss?

Hair loss due to chemo is caused by the agents containing poisons. Chemo is basically a poison flowing thru the veins killing all cells in its path.


This is a temp. thing tho, hair starts growing as soon as treatment is over. while chemotherapy drugs preferentially destroy cancer cells, the drugs also can destroy those cells responsible for normal growth of hair and nails. Cancer patients sometimes shed the hair and nails during treatment.


Hair follicles are destroyed, thus hair falling out.


Burns can not only be caused by radiation, chemo also can cause these burns. Again, chemo is poison and is bound to cause problems in our system, but normally burns only occur from chemo if some is spilled on you or backs up from the IV.Why cancer treatment may cause burns And hair loss?
Chemotherapy kills rapidly dividing cells indiscriminantly, this would include the cancer cells, the hair cells, the cells lining the gut and mouth. That is why most chemo causes hair loss, and stomatitis (inflammation of the mucous membranes). Localized radiation therapy can cause burns over the area being treated. Cellulitis (skin infections which can resemble burns) can result from chemo because it also lowers your resistance by reducing the number of white blood cells in your body (also a rapidly dividing cell type).


While undergoing chemo, it is very important to maintain excellent hygiene personally and with your food, avoid sick persons and exposures to extremes of weather (sun and cold).Why cancer treatment may cause burns And hair loss?
chemo kills all the fast replicating cells good and bad


such as the cells like skin hair mouth tissue etc


while trying to kill the cancer it also kills some good cells
the reason for this is that the treatment not only kills good cells but also cancer cells as well. it also irritates the skin and not rally burns it but irritates it b/c it kills the good cells.
Chemotherapy affects rapidly dividing cells, which includes hair follicles as well as cancer cells, white blood cells, mucous membrane cells, etc. Ergo - hair falls out.





Radiation therapy can cause burns, usually no worse than a sunburn but sometimes serious.
Radiation can cause burns. The reason is because high heat is what kills the cancer cells. Radiation is directed at the cancerous spot and the heat kills the cancer cells. A side effect is that it can burn your skin.
Burns are from radiation, hair loss is from Chemotheaphy.