Use of a mobile app for proactive symptom monitoring helped patients with advanced cancer who were no longer receiving active anticancer treatment maintain their quality of life and reduced hospital utilization, according to findings from a randomized controlled trial presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract LBA12008).
Study Details
The study evaluated SUPPORT+, a digital symptom-monitoring platform designed for patients receiving palliative care. The app sends weekly automated reminders prompting patients—or their caregivers—to complete a brief questionnaire about physical and emotional symptoms. Based on responses, the app provides self-management recommendations for mild or moderate symptoms and automatically alerts palliative care nurses when severe or worsening symptoms are reported. Nurses then follow up with patients through the app or by telephone.
“Patients with advanced cancer experience a heavy and fluctuating symptom burden while living primarily in the community. Care is still largely reactive, relying on patients or caregivers to seek help when symptoms worsen,” said lead study author Wing-Lok Chan, MBBS, of the University of Hong Kong. “This randomized clinical trial demonstrates that proactively monitoring symptoms using a digital platform, combined with timely nurse follow-up, can help maintain quality of life and reduce unplanned hospitalizations.”
The trial enrolled 1,214 patients with advanced cancer from six palliative care clinics in Hong Kong. Participants were no longer receiving active cancer treatment and had a median age of 78 years. Approximately half (50.8%) were male, and caregivers accounted for 67.6% of app users. Patients were randomly assigned either to use the SUPPORT+ app (n = 590) or to receive usual palliative care (n = 624) for 18 weeks.
Quality of life was assessed using the EQ-5D-5L instrument and its Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), while symptoms were measured using the Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale (IPOS).
Key Results
In the intention-to-treat analysis, patients assigned to SUPPORT+ maintained better quality of life than those receiving usual care. EQ-5D-5L index scores increased from 0.49 at baseline to 0.52 at 18 weeks among app users, whereas scores declined from 0.50 to 0.38 in the usual-care group. Similarly, EQ-5D-5L VAS scores improved from 63.2 to 65.7 with app use but decreased from 63.9 to 59.7 with usual care.
Investigators noted that some deterioration in quality of life would ordinarily be expected in this population because patients were living with progressive cancer and receiving supportive care alone. In a separate analysis restricted to participants with complete data, quality-of-life scores declined in both groups over time, but the magnitude of decline was consistently smaller among patients using the app.
The intervention also appeared to reduce health-care utilization. Although emergency department visit rates were similar between groups, patients in the SUPPORT+ arm experienced fewer hospital admissions and shorter hospital stays than those receiving usual care. A smaller proportion of patients in the app group experienced a decline in ECOG Performance Status (12.4% vs 17.4%), although this difference did not reach statistical significance.
Toby Christopher Campbell, MD, MS, of the University of Wisconsin and an ASCO Expert in palliative care, commented that the findings add to growing evidence supporting systematic symptom reporting and intervention. “When patients are able to report symptoms and receive help, they feel better, and that can lead to better outcomes,” he said.
DISCLOSURE: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit coi.asco.org.
