• Question: have you ever mistaken cancer for alapicia

    Asked by anon-220741 to Alex on 18 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Alex Blenkinsop

      Alex Blenkinsop answered on 18 Jun 2019:

      I am not a medical doctor, so I’m not sure about how these two diseases are diagnosed, but I do think they have very good diagnostics for most cancers now so that people can get the right treatment.

Comments

  • Photo: Rebecca

    Rebecca commented on :

    Do you mean alopecia, when people lose their hair? People with cancer lose their hair due to the cancer treatments. Chemotherapy (medicines injected into the blood) is designed to target rapidly dividing cells as most cancer cells are dividing rapidly. But they also target other rapidly dividing cells in the body leading to side effects including hair loss, mouth ulcers, indigestion. Alopecia is a condition which results in hair loss. It might be autoimmune or sometimes the reason is unknown. Essentially if someone came to see the doctor because they had hair loss, most patients with cancer treatment related hair loss would be able to tell the doctor they were having cancer treatment so they wouldn’t mistake it for alopecia.