NIH Grant Funds Efforts to Advance At-Home Cancer Care

The Managing Symptoms and Psychological Distress During Oral Anti-Cancer Treatment grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is assisting Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and other organizations in expanding cancer management at home through new technology.

“More and more of the care provided by the nation’s cancer centers is moving into patient homes,” said Tracy Crane, PhD, RDN, Sylvester’s director of Lifestyle Medicine, Prevention and Digital Health, and one of three principal investigators for this study, in a press release.

Cancer treatment continues to mobilize and relocate to patient homes. Amid this transition, Sylvester researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine leveraged technology to assist this process.

“For example, patients in this study will be those taking oral chemotherapy drugs at home rather than intravenously in the hospital, and we’re looking at managing their cancer therapy-related toxicities at home, using a technology we developed at Sylvester,” continued Crane.

Crane also serves as co-lead of Cancer Control at Sylvester alongside collaborators Alla Sikorskii, PhD at Michigan State University, and Terry Badger, PhD, from the University of Arizona.

The study contains a digital-intervention aspect, comprising an automated voice-response system. This resource came from the University of Miami proprietary software platform known as My Wellness Research.

Through this platform, researchers can gain insight into the patient’s state based on wearable device data and machine learning. It also contains a voice-activated system to communicate with patients through phone calls.

Furthermore, researchers will test the outcomes associated with the system.

“We’ll be testing whether patients who are offered the intervention have better symptom management, as well as surveying cancer center providers to determine if the technology saves them time by reducing patient calls and messages requiring follow-up,” said Crane.

Enrollment for the program will commence next spring. During that time, the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) will coordinate participant registration from the United States and Puerto Rico.

Crane noted that this trial will likely provide insight into this system’s capabilities.

“This is an exciting time for patient care as it’s quickly moving from the hospital to the home,” said Crane. “With the automated system in our study, we may discover that we can be more responsive to the needs of more patients, especially those in outlying or underserved areas.”

This is not the first time the NIH supported the expansion of cancer care. In August 2022, funding from the NIH led four organizations to set up telehealth research centers of excellence focused on cancer care.

The expansion of telehealth for cancer treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many patient benefits. To continue probing the abilities of telehealth in cancer treatment, the NIH provided various organizations with financial support. These organizations included the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania.

With the funding, the organizations planned to assemble telehealth research centers. The NYU Grossman School of Medicine created the Telehealth Research and Innovation for Veterans with Cancer (THRIVE) Telehealth Research Center. Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania created the University of Pennsylvania Telehealth Research Center of Excellence (Penn TRACE).

“These centers will be at the cutting edge of some amazing breakthroughs by creating sustainable and effective telehealth options tailored specifically for cancer care,” said Roxanne E. Jensen, PhD, a program director in the Outcomes Research Branch in DCCPS, in a press release. Jensen oversaw the TRACE initiative with Dr. Vanderpool.

“This work will pave the way for having healthcare delivery look a lot different for cancer patients over the next five to 10 years, and that's really exciting and in alignment with the goals of the Cancer Moonshot initiative.”

In pursuit of expanded cancer care, the NIH has supported multiple organizations, as shown in these examples.