1. Prospective trial on telemonitoring of geriatric cancer patients using handheld devices
- Author
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Jürgen Hesser, Victor Siefert, Frank A. Giordano, Christian Neumaier, Manuel Blessing, Elena Sperk, Frederik Wenz, Daniel Buergy, Thomas Ganslandt, and Grit Welzel
- Subjects
Response rate (survey) ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Medical surveillance ,Performance status ,business.industry ,Cancer ,medicine.disease ,Interim analysis ,030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging ,law.invention ,Clinical trial ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Oncology ,Randomized controlled trial ,law ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Clinical endpoint ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,business - Abstract
Randomized trials indicate that electronic or app-based assessment of patient-reported outcomes may improve outcomes in cancer patients. To analyze if an app-based follow-up would be accepted by elderly cancer patients, we conducted a single-center prospective feasibility study (NCT03196050). Cancer patients (≥60 years) without concurrent uncontrolled severe medical conditions and a Karnofsky performance status (KPS) ≥70 were eligible if they were able to use the smartphone app. The primary endpoint was compliance over 1 year, calculated as patient-specific and study date-specific response rate to questions sent as push notifications; in this interim analysis, we report on 4‑month data. Secondary outcomes included a comparison of a subjective health status item (SPHS) with the physician-rated KPS. Out of 225 patients screened, 54 patients agreed to participate and 29 activated the app and participated in the study. The mean age was 66 years (61–78). The individual compliance rate averaged at 58.3% (standard deviation SD = 35%). Daily compliance was 53.3% on average (SD = 10.8%) and declined over time. The average percentage of patients who sent answers at least weekly was 75.0% (SD = 14.8%) and declined from 100% in week 1 to 53.8% in week 17 post-enrollment. Secondary outcomes indicated that questionnaires such as the EORTC-QLQ-C30 are accepted via app and that there is a significant moderate correlation between the SPHS and KPS scores (r = 0.566; p
- Published
- 2019