Sense of coherence and health‐related quality of life in patients with neurotoxicity after cancer chemotherapy: Assessment from a real‐time mobile phone–based system

Abstract

Objective: In the present study, we aimed to assess sense of coherence (SOC) andhealth-related quality of life (HRQOL) during and after adjuvant chemotherapy by mobile phone-based reporting in patients with colorectal cancer experiencing neurotoxicity. Methods:In this prospective descriptive cohort study, a mobile phone-based system was used to receive a series of real-time longitudinal patient-reported assessments of SOC (13-item), HRQOL (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) 27-item), and neurotoxicity (OANQ 29-item) from 43 patients with colorectal cancer after being treated with chemotherapy including oxaliplatin. Measurements were conducted during the whole treatment period (mean 5 cycles) and up to 12 months after completing chemotherapy. Results:In total, 817 questionnaire responses (226 SOC, 221 FACT-G, 370 OANQ) answered during and after chemotherapy treatment were available for analysis. Even though all patients experienced neurotoxicity during the treatment period, HRQOL was stable over time. Over time, the ratings of physical wellbeing tended to increase, while the subscale of social wellbeing tended to decrease. Overall SOC, including the three components comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness was stable during the entire study period. No internal data was missing due to the mobile phone-based system. Conclusions: All patients had neurotoxicity during the treatment period that seemed to affect the social wellbeing component of HRQOL, but SOC seemed unaffected. Real-time patient-reported assessment using mobile phone technology could be valuable in the clinical setting to provide continuous individualised monitoring to help identify patients who need further evaluation to maintain or improve their psychosocial health. Occupation Type of cancer location, n (%)Colon 38 (88) Rectum 5 (12) Chemotherapy, n (%) FOLFOX 2 6 (14) CAPOX 3 37 (86) Oxaliplatin mg (total dose) mean, (range) 918, (120-1680) 1 Sex distribution in follow-up male/female; 3 months (55 %/45 %), 6 months (50 %/50 %), 9 months (40 %/60 %) and 12 months (46 %/54 %). 2 Fluorouracil + leucovorin + oxaliplatin. 3 Capecitabine + oxaliplatin. 4Dose reduction was applied to all patients at some point, mean 5 OXAtreatments.

Use of telehealth and eHealth technologies in patient care by psycho‐oncology service providers in low–middle‐income countries during the COVID‐19

“…Undoubtedly, telehealth and/or eHealth are great strategies to be used in order to keep providing care and psychosocial support to patients with cancer and their caregivers 2 and also to assess psychological consequences of illness. 3 , 4 Moreover, individuals who are dealing with the emotional burden of the cancer journey (e.g., distress, anxiety, and depression) and possible concerns regarding infection, their health care capacity, and potential interference with the optimal cancer care are among the beneficiaries of such assistance. 5 In this paper, we define telehealth as an intervention that utilizes telecommunication technologies, and eHealth as “the use of emerging information and communication technology, especially the Internet, to improve or enable health and health care”.…”

A Review of AI and Data Science Support for Cancer Management

“…In fact, these dimensions were not captured by any of the PROs used in the reviewed papers. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy -General (FACT-G), also a cancer-specific HRQoL questionnaire is more frequently used in America, but was less frequently used for data collection --in 6% of included papers [36][37][38]. The second most used questionnaire in this review was Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), a set of person-centered measures (enabled by CAT and IRT), used in 16% of the papers [12,14,16,[22][23][24][25][26].…”

Special issue on eHealth innovations and psycho‐oncology

“…Interestingly, numerous studies targeted fear of recurrence, either as a primary or secondary focus . Other studies targeted diverse symptoms and treatment side effects, including pain, insomnia, and neurotoxicity . Additional notable outcomes of focus included clinical trial participation decision making, cancer survivorship follow‐up care, and palliative care patient access to psychological counseling through outreach telehealth services …”

“…A number of studies included a focus on assessment and evaluation using eHealth approaches. For example, Drott and colleagues found a mobile phone app to be a useful tool to evaluate sense of coherence and quality of life in patients with neurotoxicity after chemotherapy . Kolva and colleagues determined that use of an online risk algorithm to assess suicidality in cancer patients was ethically sound and feasible .…”