Los Angeles-based CedarsSinaiMedicalCenter plans to begin a small clinical cancer study using Fitbits to collect data to determine whether cancer patient are active enough to undergo chemotherapy.
The study hopes to improve upon the current methods for assessment of activity levels, which are essentially based on patient-reported data, reports MobiHealthNews.
"What we know is that individuals who are up and about tend to be more able to tolerate chemotherapy and have a greater potential for benefitting from it," Arvind Shinde, MD, of the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, told MobiHealthNews. "People who are spending more time in bed usually get harmed by the treatment we give, even if the cancer is responsive to the treatment."
The study will include 30 patients with advanced stages of cancer who will be outfitted with Fitbit Charge HR devices for six months. After that time, data from the devices will be combined with questionnaires to help screen for factors such as pain, disrupted sleep, stress and fatigue. Cedars-Sinai expects to have data from the trial ready to share within a few months.