Cancer patient’s grey hair ‘turned black gradually’ during therapy, study says – CTV
July 11, 2025
A cancer drug used to treat advanced kidney cancer appears to have reversed grey hair in an older man, a rare side effect that researchers say could offer new clues about how hair colour might be restored.
Researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bilaspur (AIIMS Bilaspur), published the study in BMJ Case Reports on June 27. It describes a man in his late 60s who was being treated for metastatic renal cell carcinoma with axitinib, a targeted cancer drug. After six months on the medication, his hair began changing colour.
“The patient observed that the hair on his moustache and scalp, which had previously turned grey due to ageing, turned black gradually, starting from the margins of the hairline on the scalp,” study authors Avita Dhiman, Pravesh Dhiman and Manju Daroach wrote.
They added the effect continued to progress over the following months without the use of hair dye or other treatments.
Axitinib belongs to a class of cancer therapies known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), which block specific cell signals that promote tumour growth. In this case, researchers believe the drug also triggered melanogenesis, the process that produces melanin, the pigment responsible for hair, skin and eye colour.
