Cancer Treatment Options Forum - May 4th, 2011 - 5 Comments

Do you lose your hair when you take radiation for cancer?

I’m doing a project for school and I need to know how raditaon affect you.

There are 5 comments for this post.

Justin on May 4, 2011 5:21 am

Most of the time you do.
tommy on May 4, 2011 5:21 am

well chemo therapy uses radiation and the draw back to that is that you lose most of your body hair
Special K on May 4, 2011 5:21 am

There are different combinations of chemo drugs that are used for different cancers. Some don’t cause hair loss. Radiation is different then chemo.
I had surgery that removed my cancer so I didn’t need radiation.
april on May 4, 2011 5:21 am

Tommy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Chemo doesn’t use radiation. Sometimes you’re given both at the same time, then chemo alone. You lose hair where the radiation is aimed toward and also where it passes through your body. I had brain cancer and lost my hair where the radiation went in and 3 places it passed through, as the machine was aimed at different angles.
lo_mcg on May 4, 2011 5:21 am

As April said, radiation is a localised treatment. If your cancer is in a body part that has hair, for example the head, then you may lose hair where the radiation is directed.

I had breast cancer; no hair on my chest, so radiation didn’t cause any hair loss.

Chemotherapy and radiation/radiotherapy are two completely different things