Aim: This study has been carried out empirically on the patients who have taken chemotherapy treatment because of breast cancer with the purpose of determining the effect of the scalp cooling method on hair loss due to the chemotherapy at the Department of Chemotherapy Unit in a university hospital.
Methods: Totally 50 individuals, 25 of them are in study group and the rest 25 are in control group, who are administered chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. All the patients within the research have been informed about the applications and their informed consent have been obtained. Also ethics committee approval has been received. “Introductory Information Form Researcher and Patient Hair Loss Evaluation Scale” has been used in the acquisition of the data.
Results: In this study the patients in both groups have similar demographic features. After the scalp cooling method which has been carried out in accordance with Researcher and Patient Evaluation Scale, the study group has kept present score at the rate of 72 % when the score has increased in 100 % of the individuals in the control group.When the hair loss score of the patients before and after the treatment is compared a significant hair loss hasn’t been observed on the patients who are in the study group before the chemotherapy. Although a significant change in hair loss hasn’t been seen at the next cure, it is thought that the difference between the scores is significant statistically (p<0,05). Before the chemotherapy a significant hair loss hasn’t been seen on the patients in the control group but after the chemotherapy it has been identified that hair loss is at a more serious level statistically when compared to the study group (p<0,05).
Conclusions: In accordance with these results the findings are discussed and some suggestions are put forward.