Does all cancer medication causes hair loss? Are there any that don't?

Do all stage 1 breast cancer patients with no lymph node involvement have to take chemo?Does all cancer medication causes hair loss? Are there any that don't?
Many chemotherapy drugs do not cause hair loss either at all or in even a majority of patients. Many do though.





Many stage I breast cancer patients do not need chemo; it used to depend on age, size, whether sensitive to hormones or not, whether other pathologic adverse features were present. Those still are important. However, we are learning that the biology of a tumor is possibly more important than the standard pathology things we discuss (size, nodes, etc). For instance you can take two women with 1 cm tumors, and no nodes involved, and one will recur quickly despite everything you do, the other won't even if the patient takes no therapy. Something else is at work here.





A new test, OncotypeDx (.com), can be used to help women decide if chemotherapy is right for them. It looks at biology parameters, and gives a recurrence score as a result, a number that tells you the % chance of recurrent cancer over the next 10 yrs. It is ONLY used in women who are node negative AND have positive estrogen receptor (ER) assay. A high score strongly suggests chemo is worthy, while a low score suggests hormonal therapy is sufficient. Intermediate scores are unknown for now what is best.





Your oncologist will be familiar with this. He may have a good reason not to do this test, so talk with him about it.





God bless, best wishesDoes all cancer medication causes hair loss? Are there any that don't?
not all types of cancer need chemo but only your oncologist could tell advise you on if you need it or not..and there are a few types of chemo that do not cause hair loss
The answer to this is between you and your oncologist. If you look at web info it will give you some knowledge of what is offered. Talk over with your doctor. Chemo usually means hair loss but not everyone reacts the same. Talk with others who have gone through breast cancer as they have a lot of knowledge to share. Good Luck!