Dr. Antonio Alvi Armani

Hair loss related to cancer

Hair loss can result from the onset of various types of cancer or as a side effect of a tumor and even the treatment of cancer with drugs like chemotherapy can cause you to lose hair.  Like most hair loss that accompanies a disease or drug usage, the hair loss should only last as long as the cause of the loss.

Hair loss as neoplasic alopecias: This is a rare type of hair loss that occurs when a cancer spreads from somewhere else in the body to the scalp.  It is called neoplasic alopecia because the word neoplasic comes from the word ‘neoplasm’, which means tumor, but it may also go by the name metastatic alopecia because the word metastatic comes from the word metastasis, which refers to the spread of cancer.

The susceptibility of the scalp to neoplasic alopecia is higher for women with breast cancer and for men with lung cancer in particular, as opposed to other types of cancer.  It is believed that mucines, a certain kind of protein created by breast and lung carcinoma, degenerate the cells of the outer root sheath of the hair follicle.  There are cases, however, of cancer spreading from the breast to the scalp without any evidence of hair loss.

Neoplasic alopecia is considered to be so closely related to signs of breast cancer that it is common practice for women over the age of 40 who show signs of alopecia areata (sudden unexplained hair loss) to undergo a breast examination.  In these cases the hair loss could be a sign of carcinoma before the cancer is clinically detected.

Hair loss from tumors: Ovarian and adrenal tumors are also likely to cause hair loss.  Both types of tumors can cause hyperandrogenism, which is the excessive production of androgens (male hormones).  Androgens are known to play a key role in male and female pattern baldness.  Once the tumor has been removed, however, the hair loss should go away.

Scalp tumors are another possibility of tumors affecting your hair.  Although slow growing scalp tumors are a rare cause of hair loss, they can still affect the hair and scalp in other ways.  Benign scalp tumors can result in growths on and around your scalp in relation to any number of the various components of the hair follicle, the sebaceous gland (the small glands in your scalp that secrete oil and fatty substances) or the skin of the scalp itself.  Any of these kinds of growths can affect the growth of your hair and the structure and health of your scalp in many ways, including bald patches or diffuse shedding of the hair.