Up to 8% of cancer patients refuse chemotherapy because they don’t want to lose their hair. Of course, hair loss can cause immense damage to a person’s self-esteem — but it can also strip patients of their privacy, making their illness immediately visible to others.
“It’s not about beauty. It’s about privacy. Think about the times that you’ve walked into the grocery store or been in an airport and seen somebody who clearly is bald and clearly doesn’t have their eyebrows. You’re like, ‘Oh, that person’s going through cancer. I feel really bad for them,’” said Kate Dilligan.
Dilligan, a breast cancer survivor, is on a mission to help chemotherapy patients from losing their hair. Inspired by her own chemotherapy journey, she founded a medical device company named Cooler Heads that sells a portable and self-administered scalp cooling device.
Scalp cooling — which involves medically induced hypothermia on the scalp before, during and after chemotherapy — can help patients retain their hair. But cancer patients don’t always have access to this, Dilligan noted.
When Dilligan was undergoing chemotherapy in 2016 and 2017, she said the only available method for her to keep her hair were frozen gel caps.
“These gel caps are literally frozen in dry ice and placed on and off your head every 25 minutes. The day before my third chemotherapy infusion, the person who was doing that for me — because there’s no way you’re going to be able to do it on your own as you’re getting chemo — quit,” she said.
After the company that supplied this assistant informed her of the news, Dilligan then insisted a replacement be found immediately. She offered to double the pay — from $500 to $1,000 — as well as cover all hotel costs to ensure someone showed up.
This experience left her feeling powerless, and it highlighted the deep lack of patient control in cancer treatment. It’s the whole “why” behind San Diego-based Cooler Heads, which Dilligan founded in 2018.
Cooler Heads’ system has two primary components. One is a portable cooling unit, and the other is a capping system designed to induce hypothermia in hair follicles.
The cooling unit is lightweight at 23 pounds. It is also compact enough to fit under an airplane seat and can run on wall power or battery power, allowing patients to move around freely during treatment, Dilligan explained.
The capping system has several layers to ensure proper cooling and fit. It has a cooling wrap, which circulates coolant from the machine to chill the scalp, as well as a neoprene compression strap, which ensures even contact between the cooling wrap and the scalp. The system also involves a compression cap with air chambers – patients adjust the fit using an air bulb, similar to a blood pressure cuff, to achieve uniform cooling, Dilligan stated.
The FDA cleared the device in 2021, and providers started adopting it in 2022. Dilligan said patients in 23 states are currently using the solution.
Cooler Heads sells its product to health systems. The solution helps address the issue of chair time management, which Dilligan said has been a major barrier to providers’ scalp cooling adoption.
Since chemotherapy sessions are a key revenue driver for health systems, infusion chair turnover is a crucial metric. Two-thirds of Cooler Heads’ customers had never offered scalp cooling before, largely because traditional systems required patients to remain in the infusion chair for extended periods.
“We allow the patients, when they’re done with chemo, to get out of their infusion chair and go someplace else — go to the waiting room or some other location designated by their infusion center. Because if you’re the director of cancer at a health system, chair time is one of the most important metrics that you have,” Dilligan explained.
The portability of Cooler Head’s system helps it stand out from competitors, she noted. In her view, the company is facing two main competitors in the scalp cooling space, both of which are traded on the Sweden’s stock exchange.
The first is Paxman. Its system serves two patients at a time, but it requires patients to remain in the infusion chair after chemotherapy, Dilligan pointed out. She also noted that Paxman’s product uses a silicone cap — which she said can become rigid when cooled, making it difficult to maintain proper contact with the scalp.
Cooler Heads’ other competitor is Dignitana. Dilligan said its machine is even larger than Paxman’s, requiring 220-volt power, which cannot be found in a standard outlet. Dignitana’s system also needs significant nursing intervention to ensure proper fit, and like Paxman, it keeps patients in their chairs post-chemotherapy for continued cooling, she remarked.
Overall, she believes the mission of her company is to empower cancer patients and hopefully create a reality where more people opt for life-saving treatment.
Dilligan pointed out that cancer patients’ desire for privacy isn’t just about avoiding pity from strangers — it’s also often about protecting the lives and futures they worked hard to build.
“All of a sudden, you know you’re not going to get that promotion, you’re not going to get that leadership role. There’s all these things that just get taken from you because you’re a cancer patient. They will just put you in the corner and have you sit with a blanket over you,” she said.
Cooler Heads is set to announce a Series A fundraising round in the next month or two, Dilligan noted.
Photo: FatCamera, Getty Images
