What is it about?
Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) significantly impacts cancer survivors' physical activity and quality of life and plays a crucial role in treatment decisions. Accurate CRF assessment can be challenging due to patient and provider factors, such as limited clinic time, reporting biases, and the limitations of current measurement tools. Clinician observations and history-taking skills often vary, leading to discrepancies in fatigue evaluations. This study aimed to address these gaps by employing a pendant sensor to remotely identify CRF-associated digital biomarkers through monitoring daily physical activity patterns, postures, and locomotion. While walking speed did not differ between individuals with and without CRF, the pendant sensor effectively distinguished CRF presence based on metrics like light activity percentage, sitting and lying duration, and daily steps in particular longest unbroken walking bout.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The study highlights the potential for digital health and remote patient monitoring in detecting early cancer related fatigue signs and informing care providers. Future research should investigate the utility of mobility performance monitoring for tracking CRF changes, evaluating intervention responses, and enabling earlier CRF detection.
Perspectives
It was a pleasure to collaborate on this article with both oncologists and engineers, as we aimed to address a crucial gap in the field: promoting quality of life for cancer survivors by effectively managing side effects during cancer therapy, which often involves toxic agents. CRF is a prevalent issue among cancer patients, with one-third of survivors continuing to experience it up to six years after primary treatment. Accurate measurement is essential for successful management. We hope this study encourages the adoption of technology for improved CRF identification and monitoring, ultimately leading to better CRF management.
Bijan Najafi
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Harnessing digital health to objectively assess cancer-related fatigue: The impact of fatigue on mobility performance, PLoS ONE, February 2021, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246101.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
