Mobile apps for cancer patients: Identifying positive impacts and concerns

Mobile health is being increasingly considered as a strategy to deliver healthcare to people with chronic diseases. This stands particularly true for cancer management where treatment is being progressively administered at home, requiring more involvement, education, and changes in behavior from patients. This article aims to identify the main axes of intervention for behavioral change of mHealth in cancer management and its relative impacts, as well as identify recent evidence on user preferences for optimal engagement in mHealth-based behavioral change strategies.

A literature search was carried out in the Databases PubMed and Cochrane during the period October-December 2023. The search retrieved 505 initial entries narrowed down to 21 articles included in this commentary.

Evidence is available on Mobile apps for cancer management being used to successfully promote behavioral changes in the areas of treatment adherence, symptoms self-management, communication with healthcare professionals, and holistic well-being in cancer patients. These are activities traditionally relevant in healthcare management interventions and contribute to further developing the relevance of the field of Digital Health in healthcare management.

The article contributes to a practical understanding of how Mobile interventions are being applied to promote higher self-care, a better emotional status, lesser adverse impacts, and, ultimately, increased survival rates for cancer patients. Several cancer patients' preferences were identified for the promotion of user engagement related to app design, available features, interoperability, and app creation process, as well as advanced healthcare management intervention. Preferences were found to be different for adolescents and young adult cancer patients when compared to other cohort groups.