Open AccessEVA-Scalp: Evaluation of Patient Satisfaction with a Scalp Cooling Device to Prevent Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia in Breast Cancer Patients
Author(s) -
Franz-Ferdinand Bitto,
Alexander König,
Thuy PhanBrehm,
Thomas Vallbracht,
Julian Koch,
Timo Schinköthe,
Matthias Wolfgarten,
Sven Mahner,
Nadia Harbeck,
Rachel Würstlein
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
breast care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.767
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1661-3805
pISSN - 1661-3791
DOI - 10.1159/000501393
Subject(s) - medicine , scalp , chemotherapy , breast cancer , dermatology , cancer , patient satisfaction , oncology , surgery
Purpose: Scalp cooling (SC) offers a chance to reduce hair loss (HL), but patient satisfaction, the effect on well-being, as well as patient selection criteria have not been sufficiently assessed yet. Methods: In the EVAScalp trial, SC was offered to 70 breast cancer patients who received chemotherapy between November 2015 and September 2018. For SC, the Paxman-Orbis-II System was used. Satisfaction was measured by a questionnaire evaluating the level of depression with the WHO-5 well-being index (WHO-5) plus questions addressing the patient’s experiences and side effects using the SC device. To evaluate efficacy, documentation by photo, by a physician, and by an HL-diary was conducted. Results: Regarding efficacy, a significant difference between chemotherapy regimens is seen. Anthracycline-based therapies led to a stop of SC in 71% of the patients, whereas taxane-based therapies without anthracyclines were associated with a high acceptance of SC, and 88% of patients with paclitaxel-based therapies continued SC throughout their chemotherapy. Overall, only 7.69% of the patients stopped because of side effects. As an indicator for quality of life, WHO-5 was higher (65.8%) in patients with successful SC compared to in patients who stopped SC because of HL or side effects (only 53.0%). The majority of patients (82.22%) with successful SC would recommend SC to other patients. Conclusions: Patients tolerated SC as long as HL was successfully prevented. The well-being of patients with successful SC was significantly higher than that of patients who stopped SC prematurely. In general, SC is a promising approach and improves patient well-being, but there are still limitations to its utility depending on the chemotherapy regimen used.