WISE INTERVENTIONS

Adolescents and young adults with cancer played a video game in which they controlled a nanobot within the bodies of young patients with cancer to “ensure strategically that virtual patients engage[d] in positive self-care behaviors such as taking oral chemotherapy to fight cancer cells, taking antibiotics to fight infection, taking stool softener to prevent bowel perforations, practicing good mouth care to combat mucositis, using relaxation techniques to reduce stress, and eating food to gain energy.” As compared to patients who played a control game, those in the treatment group showed greater adherence to antibiotics and oral chemotherapy assessed through electronic pill-monitoring devices and serum metabolite assays as well as greater self-efficacy, and greater knowledge of cancer over 3 months. There were no effects on self-reported general treatment adherence, stress, control, or quality of life.