BACKGROUND
Although video gaming has been associated with many negative health consequences, it was hypothesized that a mobile online game would help to increase compliance with cytotoxic chemotherapy and decrease the incidence of chemotherapy side effects in patients with breast cancer.
OBJECTIVE
The potential efficiency of video games to help side effects and improve life quality and life span for metastatic breast cancer patients needs to be demonstrated.
METHODS
A total of 76 patients with metastatic breast cancer agreed to participate in an education-controlled trial of mobile game healthcare management. All participants were randomly assigned to a chemotherapy+mobile game play group (mobile game group) or a chemotherapy+education group (education group) at a 1:1 ratio. This study was designed as a 3-week prospective trial.
RESULTS
The mobile game group showed increased drug adherence scores and game playing time compared to the education group. The mobile game group also reported decreased personal total physical side effects (χ2=8.87, p<0.01), including fatigue (χ2=6.26, p=0.02), numbness of hand or foot (χ2<1.0, p<0.01), stomatitis (χ2<1.0, p<0.01), and hair loss (χ2<1.0, p<0.01) compared to the education group. In addition, the mobile game group also reported decreased severity of physical side effects including (F=12.37, p<0.01), decreased appetite (F=9.33, p<0.01), numbness in the hand or foot (F<1.0, p<0.01), stomatitis (F<1.0, p<0.01), and hair loss (F<1.0, p<0.01) compared to the patients in the education group. Over the course of 3 weeks, the education group showed greater decreases in scores for quality of life (QoL) compared to the mobile game group.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate improved drug compliance, QoL and decreased prevalence rates for physical side effects when using a mobile game for breast cancer patients. These results suggest that the mobile game, ILOVEBREAST, may be helpful in the management of breast cancer.
CLINICALTRIAL
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier NCT03205969
The efficacy of scalp-cooling system for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in metastatic breast cancer patients treated with eribulin
