Relevance of a Web-mediated Follow up in Patients Having a Lymphoma With a High Risk of Relapse in Complete or Partial Response

Overview

Lymphoma is the 6th cancer in terms of incidence in France where approximately 11,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Most types of lymphomas occur at all ages with a predominance in elderly subjects. With the continuous improvement of the diagnostic techniques and the treatments, the prognosis of lymphomas is constantly improving. However, 20-40% of patients relapse most often within 2 or 3 years after the end of treatment. The current standard follow up includes a clinical examination and a biological check-up every 3 months for 2 years, then every 6 months up to 5 years and an imaging every 6 months. However, the interest of this systematic surveillance by imaging is controversial. The use of new information and communication technologies, can improve the clinical follow-up of patients. To date, access to the Internet and portable technologies is sufficiently broad and democratized to envisage the use of this type of remote surveillance in the field of health. In particular to facilitate the dissemination of information between the patient and the physician. It is thus possible to imagine using this flow of information to generate alerts. Strengthening the clinical follow-up in this indication, in which routine imaging has not demonstrated their interest, in particular by the implementation of remote monitoring completed by the patient, may present an advantage in terms of effectiveness and precocity of care. In this pathology, up to 40% of patients relapse early (within 2 to 3 years), in the vast majority of cases symptomatically (less than 2% asymptomatic relapse discovered by imaging). Finally the CT scan every 6-month , which generates radiation costs and exposures for a relatively low benefit, is performed in symptomatic patients since several weeks. The aim of this study is to evaluate the interest of a web-mediated follow up using a score based on the dynamics and the association of clinical and biological signs to alert the physician of a possible recurrence of the patients treated for a lymphoma in complete or partial response.

Lymphoma is the 6th cancer in terms of incidence in France where approximately 11,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Most types of lymphomas occur at all ages with a predominance in elderly subjects. With the continuous improvement of the diagnostic techniques and the treatments, the prognosis of lymphomas is constantly improving. However, 20-40% of patients relapse most often within 2 or 3 years after the end of treatment. The current standard follow up includes a clinical examination and a biological check-up every 3 months for 2 years, then every 6 months up to 5 years and an imaging every 6 months. However, the interest of this systematic surveillance by imaging is controversial. The use of new information and communication technologies, can improve the clinical follow-up of patients. To date, access to the Internet and portable technologies is sufficiently broad and democratized to envisage the use of this type of remote surveillance in the field of health. In particular to facilitate the dissemination of information between the patient and the physician. It is thus possible to imagine using this flow of information to generate alerts. Strengthening the clinical follow-up in this indication, in which routine imaging has not demonstrated their interest, in particular by the implementation of remote monitoring completed by the patient, may present an advantage in terms of effectiveness and precocity of care. In this pathology, up to 40% of patients relapse early (within 2 to 3 years), in the vast majority of cases symptomatically (less than 2% asymptomatic relapse discovered by imaging). Finally the CT scan every 6-month , which generates radiation costs and exposures for a relatively low benefit, is performed in symptomatic patients since several weeks. In addition, strengthened clinical follow-up may improve the early detection of relapses and also improve surveillance of all significant clinical complications commonly seen in patients with severe disease (sepsis, thromboembolism, late iatrogenics, etc.). If a benefit in survival is to be expected, it will most likely be due to the early detection of relapses and better control of recidivism through early treatment and management and the early implementation of appropriate supportive care, if only by the management of depressive symptoms, or the management of iatrogenic or other complications. The aim of this study is to evaluate the interest of a web-mediated follow up using a score based on the dynamics and the association of clinical and biological signs to alert the physician of a possible recurrence of the patients treated for a lymphoma in complete or partial response.