Development and Evaluation of a Web-Based App for Adverse Effect Management in Breast Cancer Patients Treated with...

This pilot study (NCT05743686) evaluated the feasibility of a web-based application enabling patients with breast cancer (BC) receiving oral therapy to self-report and manage treatment-related adverse effects (AEs). Patients were enrolled between January and August 2023. Historical controls were used for comparison. Participants used the web-app to self-report AEs daily for 13 weeks, completed the PRO-CTCAE weekly, and completed a questionnaire assessing psychosocial precursor factors associated with treatment adherence. Some patients and healthcare professionals participated in semi-structured interviews. The study included 28 participants and 185 historical controls. Compared with controls, participants had fewer interactions with hospital pharmacists (0 [0-1] vs. 0 [0-7], p = 0.04), with no significant differences in the number of visits, hospitalizations, or modifications to treatment. Concordance between AEs reported via the web-app and PRO-CTCAE was 66.2%. No statistically significant changes were observed in psychosocial precursor factors of treatment adherence following the intervention (all p > 0.05). The qualitative data underscored the generally positive reception of the web-based application among both patients and healthcare professionals. In conclusion, in this small mixed-methods pilot study, monitoring oral cancer therapy-related adverse effects using the web-app was feasible and acceptable, and was associated with a lower frequency of telephone contacts with hospital pharmacists compared with historical usual care. These preliminary findings are exploratory and warrant confirmation in larger, prospectively designed studies.