Mobile App Appears Feasible for Cancer Survivor Cognitive Assessment Function

The MindCap mobile app is likely feasible as an assessment for cognitive function of cancer survivors, although further data will be necessary to confirm its feasibility and efficacy against the standard of care.

Jamie Myers, PhD, RN, AOCNS, FAAN, who presented research on MindCap at the 50th Annual Oncology Nursing Society Congress, spoke with Oncology Nursing News^Ò regarding the data on the application, which utilizes 12 neurocognitive performance metrics from 2 tests (NovaScan and Trail Making) in 3 distinct phases: practice (2 trials with <2 errors), individualized baseline-determination (3 times/day), and testing (3 times/week).

To measure feasibility of use, investigators looked at time to complete phases and patient feedback/satisfaction.

The investigators found that that adults who were diagnosed with stage I to III solid tumors or lymphoma, and were 6 months to 5 years post-chemotherapy treatment demonstrated a median time for practice-phase completion of 5.82 minutes. Moreover, 80% of participants were satisfied with the app.

Additionally, 54% of patients completed sufficient tests for longitudinal analysis, and for 60% of participants, improvement in MindCap preceded PROMIS improvement. Likewise, for 33.33% of participants, a correlation between MindCap and PROMIS was observed.

Myers, a research associate professor for the University of Kansas School of Nursing, explained that MindCap is still being evaluated for use, so for the time being it will only be used in clinical trials. However, Myers added, the application will likely be fit for telehealth settings.

Transcript

So this would be a very much future-looking question, because MindCap is something that’s still under development, so it’s not yet approved as a standard of care. It would only be used currently under a clinical trial. In the future, though, it would be beautiful for telehealth, because the person at home could have done the MindCap testing as directed by their health care provider, and then could have the telehealth visit to review their results, so it would be a nice application.

It's not yet been tested head-to-head, and that's actually a critical next step in the research, to take MindCap testing and to compare it directly to the standard neurocognitive test to see what the exact correlation would be. So before it would become approved for general use, that step would have to occur.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Reference

Myers JS, Ramakrishnan S, Holt LS, Matthias M, Asher A. Investigation of a mobile digital application (MindCap) to objectively assess cognitive function for cancer survivors. Presented at: 50th Annual ONS Congress; April 9-13, 2025; Denver, CO.