Doctor: ‘Cold cap treatments’ help cancer patients keep their hair

A Bridgeport cancer survivor is all smiles after not only beating cancer, but also keeping a very important part of her life.

Nicole Nesmith, 48, says she was first diagnosed with breast cancer over a decade ago when she went for a checkup. She says the cancer came back this July in the same breast, and she beat cancer again.

"I told my daughter and my husband, ‘We're going to get through this,’" she says.

Nesmith told Dr. Richard Zelkowitz, of Hartford HealthCare St. Vincent’s Medical Center, that she didn't want to lose her hair after chemotherapy treatments. 

Dr. Zelkowitz told her about a relatively new procedure called “cold cap treatments.”

He is one of the first doctors in the area to use the cold cap which is tightfitting over the scalp.

"By cooling the scalp, it probably prevents chemotherapy from getting to the hair follicles.  It markedly decreases the amount of hair loss associated with certain chemotherapies," he told News 12.

Nesmith not only got her hair back, she got her life back.

St. Vincent’s Medical Center is only hospital in the system where the cold cap is offered.