A Pilot Study of Using Smartphone Application vs. Routine Follow-Up for Patient Care in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer During the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Naiyarat Prasongsook; Kasan Seetalarom; Siriwimon Saichaemchan; Kittipong Udomdamrongkul

doi:10.3389/fmedt.2022.900172

A Pilot Study of Using Smartphone Application vs. Routine Follow-Up for Patient Care in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer During the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Front Med Technol. 2022 Jun 21:4:900172. doi: 10.3389/fmedt.2022.900172. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Naiyarat Prasongsook¹, Kasan Seetalarom¹, Siriwimon Saichaemchan¹, Kittipong Udomdamrongkul¹

Affiliation

¹ Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Phramongkutklao Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand.

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer care monitoring should be adapted regarding COVID-19 pandemic preparedness plans. Lung Cancer Care application was a mobile application program to monitor adverse events and report outcomes. This study is aimed to invent a new mobile application evaluating patient-reported outcome (PRO) for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to evaluate the validity of a mobile application, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic era.

Methods: The validity of the application was tested, and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) questionnaires were contained in the mobile application-based PRO. Patients were randomly assigned to use mobile application-based PRO vs. routine follow-up. The primary end point was to compare the quality of life (QoL) scores between two groups. A secondary end point was overall survival (OS) and the outcomes of progressive disease (PD) between the two groups.

Results: In total, 33 patients with advanced NSCLC were enrolled. Patients in the mobile application group had higher FACT-L scores at 3 months than patients with a routine follow-up arm (106 ± 5.97 vs. 99.96 ± 5.74, p-value = 0.07). The median follow-up time was 5.43 months; patients with mobile application had an insignificant increase in median OS when compared with patients using routine follow-up (4.53 vs. 2.93 months, p-value = 0.85). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive (NPV) value of this application for predicting disease progression were 50, 83.3, 66.7, and 70%, respectively.

Conclusion: Self-reported symptoms by Lung Cancer Care application improved QoL and were similar in monitoring outcomes to face-to-face follow-up. This tool is applicable for patients with cancer to make monitoring as safe as possible for physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic era.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; advanced NSCLC; cancer care; mobile application; patients-reported outcomes; survival outcome.