Keeping a Cool Head – Reducing Hair Loss During Chemotherapy & Challenging Asthma Diagnoses

The Rounds Table

What if you could tell a woman about to undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer that you had an intervention that would significantly reduce her risk of hair loss during therapy? Or, tell an adult patient with physician diagnosed asthma that they could safely stop their asthma medications? This week on The Rounds Table we welcome back hosts Amol Verma and Nathan Zilbert to discuss two exciting new studies.

Hair loss is a common and distressing side effect for many patients undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. Nathan guides listeners through the first randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy of scalp cooling devices on reducing chemotherapy-induced alopecia.

Next, although asthma is a chronic disease, the stability of the diagnosis and the rate of spontaneous remission is unknown. Additionally, in practice, asthma is often diagnosed clinically without formalized spirometry testing. Amol leads the discussion on a prospective multi-centre cohort study re-evaluating the diagnosis of asthma in adults with a pre-existing physician diagnosis to determine if the diagnosis could be ruled out in some cases and asthma medications safety stopped.

Finally, the Good Stuff segment. Nathan highlights a discussion between two medical oncologists on the challenges of obtaining informed consent in patient interactions. Amol then discusses an article about contradictions between research and clinical practice.

Like what you hear? Rate us on iTunes! Chat with us on Twitter @roundstable and tweet at Amol directly @AmolAVerma and Nathan @NZilbert.

The Papers

1. Scalp Cooling & Alopecia: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2601500

2. Challenging Asthma Diagnoses: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2598265

Good Stuff

1. Research vs. Practice: https://www.propublica.org/article/when-evidence-says-no-but-doctors-say-yes

2. Informed Consent: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/well/live/informed-patient-dont-bet-on-it.html?mwrsm=Email&_r=0

Music Credits

The Rounds Table Theme Music by Brendan Quinn, Creative Director and Composer, Vapor RMW

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