Cooling Cap Trial to Prevent Permanent Chemotherapy-induced Alopecia in Breast Cancer Patients

A Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate Effectiveness of Cooling Cap to Prevent Permanent Chemotherapy-induced Alopecia Among Breast Cancer Patients

This study aims to examine whether the PSCS2 is effective in reducing chemotherapy-induced alopecia in woman with breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. Female adults who are newly diagnosed with stage 1-3 breast cancer and expected to receive Adriamycin or/and Taxane will participate in the study. The study design is a open label, randomized controlled trial. The patients will be randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Intervention patients will have applied scalp cooling during 4 or 6 cycles of their chemotherapy. Primary endpoint is the effectiveness of the PSCS2 for reducing permanent chemotherapy-induced alopecia. Secondary endpoints include chemotherapy-induced alopecia, distress due to chemotherapy induced alopecia, quality of life, and patient-reported alopecia related side effect.

Adjuvant chemotherapy decreases the risk of recurrence. However, it has distressing side effects, including alopecia. Chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA) is a common and distressing side effect of many chemotherapy drugs. In previous study, more than half of the breast cancer patients experienced higher distress due to CIA during cancer treatment, and this distress was strongly associated with negative body image, overall health status, and psychosocial well-being. Recently scalp cooling has been known to be one of the effective options for hair loss prevention. However there was little information regarding the effect on prevention of permanent CIA(PCIA). This study aims to examine the impact of scalp cooling on prevention of PCIA as well as CIA. Female adults who are newly diagnosed with stage 1-3 breast cancer and aged less than 70 years will be screened for plan of undergoing Adriamycin or/and Taxane regimen as neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. Eligible patients will be randomly assigned to intervention or control groups (2:1 ratio). Patients in intervention group will have applied scalp cooling during 4 or 6 cycles of their chemotherapy whereas participants in control group will be observed. The objective of the study is to examine whether Paxman scalp cooling system is effective in reducing PCIA in women with breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. In addition, impact of Paxman scalp cooling on prevention of CIA, alopecia-related distress, quality of life and patient-reported alopecia related side effect will be also explored.

Scalp cooling system, Randomized controlled trial, Permanent-Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia, Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia

There will be no blindness of physician and patients. However, statisticians who will analyze the data will be blinded.

Before the chemotherapy, patients in intervention group will use cooling cap 30 minutes before chemotherapy. Once chemotherapy drug be ready, patients will receive chemotherapy. After the chemotherapy, patients go to the cooling cap area (room) and wear the cooling cap additional 20 minute for Taxane and 90 minute for other drugs, respectively.

The investigational device which will be used in this study is the Paxman Scalp Cooling System 2. This device is manufactured by: Paxman Coolers Limited. This is a free-standing, electrically-powered, mobile refrigeration unit which circulates a refrigerated liquid coolant, at a pre-set temperature and flow rate, through a cooling cap which is attached to, and covers, the top of the patient's head. The Paxman Scalp Cooling System is intended to be used for scalp cooling of patients who are receiving chemotherapy for the treatment of solid tumors, in order to reduce the risk of chemotherapy-induced alopecia.

Permanent chemotherapy-induced alopecia is defined as hair density or thickness less than two standard deviations (SDs) compared to the baseline mean (before chemotherapy) at 6 months (±2 months) after completion of chemotherapy. Hair density and thickness will be measured by using Folliscope 5.0, LeadM.

Hair density and thickness will be measured by using Folliscope 5.0, LeadM between 1st and 2nd intervention and at 1st clinical visit after chemotherapy compared to the baseline mean (before chemotherapy).

Baseline, at the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), 1month (±2 weeks) after completion of chemotherapy and intervention

Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia Distress Scale (CADS) will be used to demonstrate that the PSCS is effective in reducing distress due to chemotherapy-induced alopecia in woman with breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy

Baseline, at the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), 1month (±2 weeks) after completion of chemotherapy and intervention

Quality of life will be measured using EORTC QLQ-C30. The QLQ-C30 is a cancer health-related quality-of-life questionnaire that has been widely used in clinical trials and investigations using patient reported outcome for individual patient management. It use a "past week" recall period. Raw scores are linearly converted to a 0-100 scale with higher scores reflecting higher levels of Quality of life.

Baseline, at the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), 1month (±2 weeks) after completion of chemotherapy and intervention

Quality of life will be measured using EORTC QLQ-BR23. The BR23 is a breast cancer specific module to measure health-related quality-of-life . It use a "past week" recall period. Raw scores are linearly converted to a 0-100 scale with higher scores reflecting higher levels of Quality of life.

Baseline, at the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), 1month (±2 weeks) after completion of chemotherapy and intervention

Baseline, at the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), 1month (±2 weeks) after completion of chemotherapy and intervention, and 6 months (±2 months) after completion of chemotherapy and intervention

Pictures to be focused on head/hair, which means shorter distance between the equipment and the subject by using Canon EOS 70D.

Baseline, at the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), 1month (±2 weeks) after completion of chemotherapy and intervention, and 6 months (±2 months) after completion of chemotherapy and intervention

At the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), At the beginning of 3rd cycle of chemotherapy, At the beginning of 4th cycle of chemotherapy, At the beginning of 5th cycle of chemotherapy, and , At the beginning 6th of chemotherapy

At the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), 1month (±2 weeks) after completion of chemotherapy, and 6 months (±2 months) after completion of chemotherapy

Baseline, at the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), 1month (±2 weeks) after completion of chemotherapy and intervention, and 6 months (±2 months) after completion of chemotherapy

Demographic information including age, education, marital status, working status, income, smoking and drinking history, medication, exposure-time to sunlight and co-morbidities

Smoking, drinking, medication and exposure-time to sunlight at baseline, at the beginning (1st day) of the 2nd cycle (each cycle is 21days), and 6m (±2m) after completion of chemotherapy, the others at only baseline

Inclusion Criteria: Newly diagnosed breast cancer, stage I-III Expected to receive 4 or 6 cycles of Adriamycin or Taxance of chemotherapy regimen as neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy with curative intent (e.g., AC, TC, or TCHP) Exclusion Criteria: Any other concurrent malignancy including hematological malignancies Elevated liver enzymes or bilirubin defined as 3 times the upper limits of normal Serum Albumin < 3.0 Subjects who are underweight (defined as a BMI < 17.5) Subjects who have had previous chemotherapy exposure Subjects with cold agglutinin disease or cold urticarial Subject who had thyroid disease, diabetes or cardiac disease Subject who had auto-immune disease History of treatment due to alopecia Subject who had scalp disease

The protocol summary, and informed consent form will be made available on clinicaltrials.gov when required. Requests for study protocol and informed consent form can be shared after starting recruit. Requests for deidentified individual participant data can be made beginning 24 months after publication and for up to 36 months post publication. Deidentified individual participant data reported in the manuscript will be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement and may only be used for approved proposals. Requests may be made to: jinseok.ahn@samsung.com or jcho@skku.edu

Requests for study protocol and informed consent form can be shared after starting recruit. Requests for deidentified individual participant data can be made beginning 24 months after publication and for up to 36 months post publication.

People who send a request e-mail and be received confirmation from : jinseok.ahn@samsung.com or jcho@skku.edu

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