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February 12, 2013

We Care -Says PROST8CARE to Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy

By Mini Swamy
TMCnet Contributor

Knowing that you have cancer can be devastating without the added trauma of fighting the side effects of chemotherapy, which is sometimes used to counter prostate cancer that has spread outside the prostate gland. These cancer patients, especially those in the advanced stages, need all the support and help that they can get.

This is exactly what PROST8CARE is trying to do. According to an article from mHIMSS, it has developed a text messaging program to help cancer patients with the side effects of chemotherapy. Access to the program is timed to coincide with the treatment cycle.

Chemotherapy is given in cycles, with each cycle lasting a few weeks followed by a rest period. During the treatment cycle, patients are more vulnerable than usual and the text messaging program helps them tide over the difficult period.

 PROST8CARE is the latest healthcare program launched by Mobile Commons, which has been gradually building its healthcare portfolio.

It delivers information to cancer patients, encouraging and educating them, trying to get them to have productive conversations with their physicians. Moreover, the timing and content of PROST8CARE’s text messages are tailored to a patient's treatment cycle.

The content in the text messaging program was developed by Mobile Commons, its pharmaceutical partner, Sanofi US in consultation with a board of four medical oncologists and four oncology nurses through the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

According to Jed Alpert, CEO and co-founder of Mobile Commons, the fact that 95 percent of Americans with chronic diseases have access to texting may well prove to be an effective way to get information across to these patients.

The text messaging program is significant given that Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men, with 241,740 new cases reported in 2012. Attempts are also being made to develop a text messaging program to improve pain management in cancer patients.

Edited by Brooke Neuman