A new study has found that fitness trackers can be valuable tools for assessing the quality of life and daily functioning of cancer patients during treatment.
The trackers, also known as wearable activity monitors, include commercial devices worn on the wrist that log a wearer’s step counts, stairs climbed, calories, heart rate and sleep.
The study focused on 37 patients undergoing treatment for advanced cancer at Cedars-Sinai.
They wore wrist-mounted fitness trackers throughout the study except when showering or swimming.
Sets of activity data were collected for three consecutive visits during treatment. After the final clinical visit, patients were followed for six months to gather additional clinical and survival results.
The team then compared data from the trackers with patients’ assessments of their own symptoms, including pain, fatigue and sleep quality.
These data sets also were compared with two common scales used to gauge physical status and overall health.
The researchers found that increased daily step and stair activity correlated with more positive ratings of a patient’s condition and lower rates of adverse events and hospitalization.
The researchers suggest that objective data collected from wearable activity monitors can supplement and enhance current assessments of health status and physical function.
As a next step, the team plans to study long-term use of the monitors in a larger, more diverse group of advanced cancer patients and correlate that data with clinical and self-reported outcomes.
They hope their finding could lead to development of individualized treatment and exercise plans that may result in increased treatment tolerability and improved survival outcomes for patients.
In the beginning of a revolution in healthcare, digital wearables, coupled with broadband telecommunication, will allow remote monitoring of cancer patients and anticipate the need for intervention before symptoms occur.
It is possible to offer truly ‘precision follow-up’ that is better for patients, providers and society.
Andrew Hendifar, MD, medical director for pancreatic cancer at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, was the principal investigator.
Gillian Gresham, Ph.D., postdoctoral scientist at the cancer institute, was the first author for the study
The study is published in the journal npj Digital Medicine.
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Figure legend: This Knowridge.com image is credited to Cedars-Sinai.
Journal reference: Gillian Gresham et al, Wearable activity monitors to assess performance status and predict clinical outcomes in advanced cancer patients, npj Digital Medicine (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41746-018-0032-6
