Timing of cancer radiation therapy may minimize hair loss

Discovering that mouse hair has a circadian clock - a 24-hour cycle of growth followed by restorative repair - researchers suspect that hair loss in humans from toxic cancer radiotherapy and chemotherapy might be minimized if these treatments are given late in the day. The study found that mice lost 85 percent of their hair if they received radiation therapy in the morning, compared to a 17 percent loss when treatment occurred in the evening. Read more here.

Study mentioned: Plikus MV, et al. Local circadian clock gates cell cycle progression of transient amplifying cells during regenerative hair cycling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 May 20. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 23690597