When Maggie was diagnosed with breast cancer, one of the first things she learned was that chemotherapy would likely mean losing her hair.

For a woman already facing the shock and uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis, that prospect was difficult to accept. Maggie, a Mt. Lebanon resident, was determined to find out whether there was another option.

“I’m a healthy person. This can’t be right,” Maggie recalled of her initial reaction to her diagnosis. “And then I had to make a lot of decisions very quickly.”

One of those decisions was whether to try scalp-cooling therapy, a treatment designed to reduce chemotherapy-related hair loss. Maggie became the first patient at the St. Clair Hospital Cancer Center affiliated with UPMC Hillman Cancer Center to use the Amma™ scalp-cooling system when the technology became available at St. Clair in 2025.

For Maggie, the decision was about more than keeping her hair.

“I didn’t want people to look at me in public and say, ‘Oh, that poor thing, what’s going on?’” she said. “I have two kids and they’re both teenagers. I wanted them to know that it was going to be OK. I was going to be OK.”

St. Clair introduced two Amma devices in 2025 through a partnership with A Glimmer of Hope Foundation. The portable system cools the scalp to approximately 65 degrees before, during and after chemotherapy. The cooling constricts blood vessels around the hair follicles, reducing the amount of chemotherapy reaching them and potentially limiting hair loss.

Dr. Vincent Reyes,  chief of hematology and medical oncology.” at St. Clair, said chemotherapy targets rapidly dividing cells. Because hair follicle cells also divide rapidly, they can be affected by chemotherapy even though they are healthy cells.

“Chemotherapy is not very smart,” Dr. Reyes said. “It cannot distinguish good cells from bad cells.”

By cooling the scalp, the Amma system can reduce blood flow to the hair follicles and limit their exposure to chemotherapy. The treatment is not designed to prevent all hair loss. St. Clair says successful scalp cooling generally limits hair loss to approximately 50 percent.

Maggie experienced that firsthand. She estimates she retained about 50 percent of her hair during treatment. Although she had hoped to preserve more, she said the difference was still significant.

“People would remind me that after my second treatment, I would not have had any hair, and I still had a lot of hair,” she said.

That made it possible for Maggie to continue many aspects of her normal life while undergoing chemotherapy. She continued working from home and participating in her children’s activities, including softball games, volleyball games and high school graduation events. She also attended concerts and other activities when she felt well enough.

“For the longest time, I really didn’t tell anybody else,” she said. “You really couldn’t tell that I was going through treatment when I was on video calls. That made me feel very confident.”

Dr. Reyes said that ability to maintain a sense of normality can be meaningful for patients.

“It’s already hard enough to go through chemotherapy, but the last thing you want is to have hair loss and people to kind of look at you and treat you differently,” he said. “You just want to be as normal as possible.”

Using the system does require commitment from patients. Maggie experienced what she described as a mild “brain freeze” and slight headache from the cold, and she remained at the hospital for additional time after her chemotherapy so the scalp cooling could continue.

Still, she felt the benefits outweighed the inconveniences.

“It’s a personal choice,” Maggie said. “You must have some strength and some persistence. But for me, the pros definitely outweighed the cons.”

Having the technology available at St. Clair also made the process considerably easier for Maggie and her husband. Other scalp-cooling methods require patients and their families to obtain and manage dry ice. With Amma, the portable device is provided through the infusion center and operated as part of the treatment process.

That local access was important to Dr. Reyes as well. St. Clair’s cancer center is affiliated with UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, providing patients with access to comprehensive cancer care close to home.

“Patients can go five to 10 minutes to their local hospital, local cancer center, and get this therapy rather than have to drive through tunnels and bridges while you’re getting chemotherapy and feeling lousy,” Dr. Reyes said.

The treatment is also available without an additional cost to eligible St. Clair patients when insurance does not cover it. A Glimmer of Hope Foundation provided funding for the initial equipment, while St. Clair Health’s Breast Care Fund helps cover the cost of scalp-cooling caps for patients whose insurance does not provide coverage.

For Maggie, the experience ultimately provided something valuable during a difficult period: a greater sense of control.

“I wanted to have the self-respect and dignity that I wanted to have when I went through this,” she said. “For me, it was definitely worth it.”