Context: Hair loss has been the most feared side effect of chemotherapy for women and it may be more distressing than the loss of her breast.²Depression, shame and loss of confidence² and anxiety⁴ also have been associated with alopecia in women with breast cancer, and as many as 8% may be at risk of refusing chemotherapy because of this fear.

Aims: To assess the patient’s awareness regarding the side effects of chemotherapy and surgery for breast cancer , perception of study subjects regarding chemotherapy induced hair loss as a psychosocial burden and to measure the relative burden of depression and anxiety  

Settings and Design: The study was an observational, descriptive and institution based cross sectional study. A predesigned, pretested and semi-structured schedule along with HADS was used for interviewing the consenting breast cancer patients who had already received at least one cycle of chemotherapy.

Results: Majority of the respondents are more concerned about the chemotherapy related side effects than the consequences of surgery. About 88.9% of the patients had inhibition of sexual activities while almost half of the study population felt the need to hide their cancer to avoid being stigmatized. 36.6% had thought about discontinuing treatment due to chemotherapy induced hair loss while majority (77.8%) felt the need to address chemotherapy induced hair loss and considered cosmetic grooming and counseling as a treatment option.

Conclusions: Sudden diagnosis of breast cancer in a female patient is a traumatic experience and may lead to depression. However the effect of the treatment like removal of the breast or hair loss and other side effects of chemotherapy may have an influence over the recovery from breast cancer and further research is required to understand the severity of the situation.

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10. Benjamin B¹, Ziginskas D, Harman J, Meakin T. Pulsed electrostatic fields (ETG) to reduce hair loss in women undergoing chemotherapy for breast carcinoma: a pilot P sychoon-cology. 2002 May-Jun;11(3):244-8.
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Chandan Roy Choudhury

Medical College Hospital, 88 College Street, Kolkata -700073, India