ASCO 2018 | CYCORE: vital monitoring during radiotherapy for head and neck cancer reduces symptom burden

Radiation treatment for head and neck cancer can be curative, but it also comes with a high symptom burden and a risk for other things such as dehydration. Since much of this treatment occurs while patients are on an outpatient basis, we sought to find a way to better capture what was going on with patients using remote, sensor and mobile technology. We created a system called CYCORE that integrates mobile and sensor devices and collects data from patients in an objective manner. It transmits these data wirelessly to an interface that clinicians can view on a daily basis to see how their patients are doing, and determine the need for medical intervention. In this study we use Bluetooth enabled weight and blood pressure devices, and those data were transmitted via a small computer hub that was plugged into the patient’s home. We also developed a mobile app for a smartphone or a tablet, and patients use that app to answer a number of questions about their daily symptoms and how they were doing. All those data were fed on a daily basis into a web-based interface that clinicians accessed, and they reviewed their patients’ data and determined whether their patients needed medical intervention for their symptoms or their risk of dehydration.

We conducted a randomized trial and patients were randomized to use this system which we called CYCORE on a daily basis during the entire six or seven weeks of their radiation treatment, or they were randomized to usual care consisting of going through radiation and seeing their radiation oncologist once a week throughout the duration of the radiation treatment. At the end of the study, we found that patients who were doing that home daily monitoring using our CYCORE system had less severe symptoms: both general symptoms as well as head neck cancer specific symptoms, than the group that was randomized to the usual care condition. We felt that our CYCORE platform could potentially serve as a model for a way to collect data from patients during a fairly intensive period of cancer treatment that could potentially be used to help improve outcomes during a critical period of cancer care.