Scientific project management
Dr. Milena von Kutzleben
Prof. Dr. Lena Ansmann
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Hein
Prof. Dr. med. Frank Griesinger

Operational project management
Dr. Milena von Kutzleben

Student assistants
Jan Christoph Galuska
Süheda Tozlu

Project duration
05/2019 - 12/2020

Project funding
Own resources

Project description
In the past decade, innovative, systemically acting anti-hormone and immune therapies provide an alternative to conventional methods of resection, chemotherapy and radiation in the treatment of lung cancer. These novel treatment options, each with specific mechanisms of action and toxicity profiles, are highly personalized, but are associated with a diverse and complex range of side effects. Symptoms such as sleep disorders and fatigue, dyspnea, cough and pneumonitis as well as diarrhea might have serious effects on the well-being and quality of life of those affected. In many cases, these symptoms are controllable and treatable. However, physicians are not always comprehensively informed about side effects and sometimes prioritize them differently than their patients do. Especially in an out-patient setting this can have effects on the effectiveness as well as on the safety of the treatment and create psychological distress that could be avoided or at least alleviated.

Efficient monitoring of side effects and their symptoms should therefore play an important role in the treatment of lung cancer. Technology-based monitoring systems from the spectrum of “Ambient Intelligence” offer the possibility of continuously providing objective data on the incidence and severity of therapy-induced side effects also for patients in an out-patient setting. However, the use of such systems poses a number of ethical challenges and questions, and may involve significant intrusion into the privacy and personal rights of users.

The MONA-T study is being conducted in cooperation with the Department of Hematology and Oncology of the University Hospital of Internal Medicine at the Pius Hospital Oldenburg. The aim of the study is to find out why physicians are not always fully informed about therapy-induced side effects, how patients deal with side effects and how they manage and interpret symptoms. A second aim of the study is to assess the acceptance of the potential use of “Ambient Intelligence” for monitoring side effects in the treatment of lung carcinomas at home and the expectations of users on such a system.

Palliatively treated patients with lung cancer (stage IV) and, at their own request, their relatives will be interviewed. Access to the field will be gained through the Pius Hospital Oldenburg. The data analysis is carried out by content analysis and, if necessary, by in-depth reconstructive procedures of qualitative empirical social research.