Health Literacy and Capecitabine Adherence in a Remote Monitoring Pilot Trial for Breast Cancer: Post Hoc Exploratory Analysis
Hernandez et al.
The finding, in our words
In a post hoc exploratory analysis of a pilot trial, remote patient monitoring was associated with a statistically significant 22.1 percentage point increase in capecitabine adherence among patients with lower health literacy compared to enhanced usual care. These findings suggest remote patient monitoring may help bridge health literacy barriers to oral anticancer medication adherence.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This randomised phase II trial found that a multidisciplinary mobile health rehabilitation programme using wearable heart rate monitors significantly preserved handgrip strength and muscle mass in patients with abdominal cancer undergoing chemoradiotherapy compared to standard care. The intervention was also associated with improved nutritional status and lower rates of haematological toxicity, indicating that remote monitoring and guided exercise may help mitigate treatment side effects.
Yang et al., Journal of medical Internet research (paywalled) · source ↗
The High-Definition Oncology feasibility study in 30 women with metastatic cancer demonstrated high adherence to biospecimen collection (97.4% plasma, 80.7% stool) and wearable monitoring (70–95% of days captured for activity, heart rate, sleep, and oxygen saturation). This establishes a viable framework for decentralised, multimodal data collection in oncology to support individualised treatment models.
Garma et al., JCO precision oncology (paywalled) · source ↗
In 50 cancer patients monitored at home with an Apple Watch for 28 days, a method that classified missing step data by gap duration and context produced the most reliable daily step estimates. Daily step counts on days with at least ten hours of wear time predicted time to first clinical event (p=0.068) and identified participants at lower hazard of mortality, with 83.3% accuracy for clinical event prediction, demonstrating that processed consumer wearable data can support remote monitoring in decentralised oncology trials.
Oakley-Girvan et al., Digital biomarkers · source ↗
The scoping review developed an ontology of early warning signs for cytokine release syndrome, identifying temperature, heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation as the core digital measures. Standardising these digital biomarkers will create fit-for-purpose datasets to support predictive models and decentralised trials in oncology.
Medberry et al., Journal of medical Internet research · source ↗
A survey of eight biopharmaceutical companies, representing a third of the oncology market, revealed that remote monitoring adoption in oncology trials trails other therapeutic areas. Electronic diaries and digital clinical outcome assessments are the most deployed tools, while local physician network visits are least used; respondents expect adoption to rise by over 40% for most technologies within five years, with digital recruitment and local imaging prioritised for improving patient centricity.