In India, it’s estimated that every ninth person may develop cancer in their lifetime. With cancer cases projected to rise to 15 lakh by 2025, patients often hesitate to undergo life-saving chemotherapy due to concerns about Hair loss.

Chemotherapy, an essential part of cancer treatment, not only targets cancer cells but also damages rapidly dividing healthy cells, including hair follicles. Studies indicate that approximately 65 percent of patients experience significant hair thinning or loss as a result of chemotherapy.

“This problem has been persistent since the advent of chemotherapy. There is an immense stigma attached to hair loss and cancer. If a woman goes bald suddenly, then people are quick to gossip about it. Besides, there are so many social or personal obligations where people wish to retain hair — from keeping the condition private from society to wanting a sense of normalcy for their family to name a few,” Raghuveer Surupa tells The Better India.

“If a patient has an upcoming wedding or big event, then also they tend to delay their chemotherapies. It is unfortunate that people delay life-saving treatment for the fear of hair loss,” he adds.

To tackle this unavoidable problem, Raghuveer has developed a unique Scalp Cooling system that alleviates the trauma of chemotherapy-induced hair loss. Currently, his innovation ‘Eva Scalp Cooling System’ is installed in 18 hospitals across Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Delhi. He says more than 3,000 successful sessions have been conducted so far.

We sat down with Raghuveer to understand more about the novel device and how it can solve one of chemotherapy’s most challenging side effects.

Understanding the scalp cooling mechanism

An engineer by education, Raghuveer pursued his higher education at the Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi. In 2013, he joined the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and later worked with Roche where he was a launch lead for the breast cancer drug in India.

Inspired by his work experience in oncology, he founded his own startup ‘Dignite’ for cancer care. Although it did not succeed, Raghuveer learnt about the urgency of handling the side effects of chemotherapies — hair loss.

“I remembered the experience of my aunt when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I saw her losing confidence and being unable to get by with her life. That really triggered me. I started looking for solutions and that’s when I came across the scalp cooling method,” shares the 34-year-old.

Talking about the availability of scalp cooling devices, he says, “A company had made silicon-based caps that come in three different sizes — small, medium, and large. The disadvantage of such caps is that they cannot fit all kinds of scalps perfectly, as scalps have a very complicated anatomical structure.”

“Chemotherapy destroys all fast-growing cells like cancerous tumours. Along with this, it also destroys fast-growing hair follicles as it can’t differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells. So, if the cap doesn’t fit properly, then the entire scalp will not be cooled, causing high chances of hair loss in that area. This destroys the main purpose of the system,” he explains.

So, Raghuveer decided to design a cap that could accommodate all head sizes. In 2020, he launched his company Stemtech Medical Devices and innovated ‘Eva Scalp Cooling System’ where a universal cap was designed to protect hair follicles from chemotherapy damage.

“Our design was inspired by a lotus or a crown. Just like they can be entirely closed, our cap is wrapped around the head of the patient, and the cap can be adjusted using the velcro as per the need,” he adds.

Raghuveer informs that a patient needs to wear this cap 30 minutes before the chemotherapy infusion, during chemotherapy infusion, and between 30 minutes and two hours post-chemotherapy. The device reduces the temperature of the scalp from 35 to 16 degrees Celsius.

While working on the device, Raghuveer also focussed on reducing the cost of the device. “Our competitors charge about Rs 25 lakh for their device. We reduced the cost drastically so that patients in developing countries could also afford this care. Hospitals can buy our device for anywhere between Rs 13 lakh and Rs 16 lakh depending on the variant of the device. The hospitals thereafter charge between Rs 1,500 and Rs 4,000 per patient per session,” he informs.

Received Rs 30 lakh Investment in Shark Tank India

Raghuveer says his goal is to ensure that patients can get through the therapy without using a wig or a scarf.

“Post-chemotherapy, almost all patients experience complete hair loss. Even if the patient loses 30 or 40 percent of the volume of hair in terms of density, they still can get by with their day-to-day life. So the goal is to get to that point where a patient doesn’t rely on wigs or scarves to cover their hair,” he shares, adding, “Around 50 percent of our patients have experienced positive results with our device, and some have even experienced a better rate of hair regrowth.”

Recently, Raghuveer’s startup featured in Shark Tank India Season 3 and bagged a deal of Rs 30 lakh. “It was great to appear on Shark Tank. We got three sharks on board — Aman Gupta, Namita Thapper, and Ritesh Agarwal,” he says.

More than the deal itself, what excites Raghuveer is the success of the device. “Four years ago, there was no clear solution available to this problem. Now, I can see that patients have a solution in at least 18 installations,” he says with pride.

“It is not just a cosmetic device. A cancer patient already deals with a plethora of problems. Being able to remove one burden and add certain value to a cancer patient’s life gives me a huge sense of contentment. My role is small but the satisfaction that I get out of it is immense,” he adds.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat. All photos: Raghuveer Surupa)