One of the most effective treatments for cancer patients is to undergo chemotherapy treatment that will kill cancer cells in the body. However, this treatment also usually comes with side effects, one of which is hair loss.
Chemotherapy treatment is usually done by injecting drugs into the patient's body to kill cancer cells, but comes with side effects such as lethargy, nausea and hair loss.
Luminate Medical, a medical equipment manufacturing company is reported to be testing a new medical equipment that is expected to help reduce the issue of hair loss when going through this chemotherapy treatment.
In a nutshell, the Luminate "helmet" gently compresses the blood vessels to the head to ensure that the chemotherapy drugs do not enter the area. Named Lily, this tool has been developed since 2021 and is currently undergoing a testing phase to test the effectiveness of this product.
The company also says that the risk of blood flow restriction is also not an issue because compression therapy is something that has been tested and seen as safe for the public to use.
However, as said before, Lily's hardware is still being tested for its effectiveness and safety. So far, some cancer patients have been tested with this equipment, and have undergone 4-12 chemotherapy treatments and still have hair on their heads.
Luminate is now looking to enter an additional testing phase in several locations in the United States, including New York, Florida and possibly Ohio. It is expected that the number of patients who will help test Lily is a total of 85 people within a few months starting from this November.