• Question: many of my family members died of cancer my auntie was treated causing her hair to fall off my question is: why did her hair fall off and how did cancer come around?

    Asked by to Kevin, Fiona on 27 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Fiona McLean

      Fiona McLean answered on 27 Jun 2014:

      I’m really sad to hear about your auntie. My auntie also had cancer but luckily she is fine now.

      Cancer can happen for a few reasons. It can be because of genetics or environmental reasons such as smoking, a bad diet, not exercising or exposure to a dangerous chemical.

      The reason hair falls out when someone gets cancer treatment is some of these treatments are designed to stop the cancer cells dividing. However, these treatments aren’t specific enough to target only the cancer cells in the person’s body so they also stop other cells in the body that divide lots. Therefore hair cells which divide for hair to grow stop dividing too.

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