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Patients diagnosed with cancer face enormous changes in their lives (Infurna et al. 2013). Adaptation to these changes is a process that requires time, often taking several weeks.

Cancer-related distress is defined as a multifaceted, unpleasant experience that is psychological (cognitive, behavioural, emotional), social and/or spiritual in nature that interferes with a person's ability to cope with the physical symptoms of cancer as well as its treatment (NCCN, 2020). It is a subjective experience, and while some cancer patients find that they can manage the stress of the disease and its treatment (Lauriola & Tomai 2019), many patients experience complications in adjustment, including anxiety and depressive disorders. Estimates of prevalence rates of these disorders among cancer patients range from 17 percent to 49 percent for anxiety disorders, and from 4 percent to 60 percent for depression (Caruso et al., 2017; Cordova, Riba, and Spiegel, 2017; Hess and Chen, 2014).

Among cancer patients, the risk of psychiatric distress is nearly twice that of the general population (Hinz et al., 2010). The probability of being depressed is 5.4 times higher among cancer patients than in that of the general population (Hartung et al., 2017). Hence, there is a need to find effective ways to support patients in adapting to the reality of an oncological diagnosis.

Cancer-related distress may also contribute to a reduction in health-related quality of life, understood as a multidimensional construct that includes physical, emotional, social and spiritual areas of human functioning (Aaronson et al., 1993). Interestingly, it has been demonstrated that patients' emotional and behavioural responses are more closely related to their perception of the illness than to their objective medical state and nosological diagnosis (Bockholt et al. 2021; Brand et al. 2021; Saritas & Özdemir, 2018; Hopman & Rijke, 2015). Illness perception is a set of subjective beliefs about the identity, causes, timeline, control of cure, and the consequences of the disease on the daily psychophysical functioning of a particular patient (Leventhal, Nerenz et al., 1984; Leventhal, Phillips et al., 2016). It is therefore considered a strong predictor of health-related quality of life and, above all, a patient’s mental state (Miceli et al., 2019).

Psycho-oncological support is an integral part of cancer treatment and has become an integral part of standard cancer care in many countries. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses, including randomized controlled trials (RCTs), show that psychotherapeutic interventions significantly reduce cancer patients psychosocial problems and improve their quality of life, as well as emotional and social functioning both during and after completion of oncological treatment (Faller et al., 2013; Tamagawa, Garland, Vaska and Carlson, 2012; Galway et al., 2012; Linden and Girgis, 2012; Heron-Speirs, Harvey and Baken, 2013; Parahoo et al., 2015; Matsuda, Yamaoka, Tango, Matsuda, and Nishimoto, 2014; Jassim, Whitford, Hickey, and Carter, 2015; Sun et al., 2019).

One of the most frequently used psychotherapeutic trends in psycho-oncology is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), an approach that is based on the premise that you can change your mood and behavior by changing maladaptive ways of thinking. Interventions using techniques derived from CBT often improve mental state, the cognitive picture of the disease, and quality of life in cancer patients (e.g., Galway et al., 2012; Parahoo et al., 2013; Fors et al., 2011). CBT also fits into the model of progressive care (Haaga, 2000; Davison, 2000), in which the intervention begins with low-intensity interactions, assuming that such a procedure may already produce the desired results. A broader intervention is then only proposed for patients who do not respond to a low-intensity intervention or who have more severe symptoms (Bower & Gilbody, 2005; Arving, Assmus, Thormodsen, Berntsen & Nordin, 2019). This model corresponds very well to the needs of oncological patients, for whom psychoeducation alone can often bring positive results.

Digital platforms can be of great help in the area of ​​low-intensity impact interventions. In this area, interventions are mainly based on psychoeducation and training in coping with stress and emotions (Haaga, 2000; Davison, 2000). In ​​Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the use of digital platforms providing therapeutic interventions aims to alleviate symptoms such as anxiety (Economides et al., 2019; Greer et al., 2019; Moberg, Niles and Beermann, 2019; Wright, Mishkind, Eells and Chan, 2019), depression (Economides et al., 2019; Moberg , Niles and Beermann, 2019; Wright, Mishkind, Eells and Chan, 2019), insomnia (Kang et al., 2017; Werner-Seidler et al., 2019), pain (Zheng et al., 2020), stress (Moberg , Niles and Beermann, 2019), and fatigue (Spahrkäs, Looijmans, Sanderman and Hagedoorn, 2020).

Living Well is currently undergoing validation in randomized control trials (RCTs) conducted in the US and Poland. Additionally, two intensive pilot studies were conducted in Poland and Germany on female cancer patients experiencing high levels of symptoms of depression and/or anxiety (April and June 2023, respectively; results already available).

‍The primary objective of our studies is to evaluate the effectiveness of our digital healthcare solutions (Living Well as an example) in reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and distress among cancer patients.

Please fill out the contact form below to request our studies' detailed results.