Remote Monitoring of Cancer Patients With Suspected Covid-19

Overview

Since emerging in December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has developed into an unprecedented global pandemic. The causative pathogen, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has the potential to cause a wide range of clinical syndromes, from fever, dyspnoea and cough to respiratory failure and cardiac injury necessitating critical care support. A number of patients have a more indolent clinical course and can be safely managed in the community. Characterising the clinical course of Covid-19 infection in the oncology population and distinguishing this from other acute oncology presentations which can mimic Covid-19 is a key unmet research need. Current standard of care for monitoring patients at high risk of chemotherapy associated neutropenic sepsis involves asking them to contact their cancer centre when they feel unwell or develop a fever. No standard of care for monitoring ambulatory Covid-19 patients has yet been established. We hypothesise that using wearable biosensors to detect patients who exhibit 'red flags' for sepsis or deterioration due to Covid-19 may allow earlier assessment and intervention. There is no current evidence for wearable biosensors in ambulatory patients receiving chemotherapy, and there is no existing research into this proposed use of biosensors in patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 infection. In order to justify performing a randomised controlled study comparing standard of care with biosensor driven monitoring it is important to establish the tolerability and validity of these devices. We aim to collect patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) on tolerability and assess the reliability of data transmission to a central data collection server. We will also perform an initial analysis of physiological data and correlation with clinical events

This is a pilot, single arm, open label feasibility study. This is a single centre trial based in a large tertiary cancer centre which treats patients across all solid and haematological malignancies. Patients will be recruited from all disease groups. Patients who present with symptoms suspicious for Covid-19 who the admitting clinicians deems appropriate for outpatient management will be considered for this study. Patients who are enrolled will undergo continuous physiological monitoring for up to three weeks. This includes continuous monitoring of heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, activity levels (by accelerometer measurement) and twice daily pulse oximetry. The physiological data will not be reviewed in real time by clinicians and therefore will not be used to alter patients' standard care. The pulse oximetry data will be visible to patients who will be given clear guidelines to follow with regards to contacting the cancer centre hotline should values deviate from baseline. In the pilot phase of RECAP 10-30 patients will each be monitored for up to 3 weeks and the following endpoints will be addressed: Physiological trends and interactions predictive of clinical deterioration due to COVID-19 (Co-primary endpoint) Reliability of biosensor data collection/transmission using digital technology from patients self-isolating at home (Co-primary endpoint) Acceptability and tolerability of wearable biosensors and continuous monitoring If the pilot phase is successful we will move to a phase II study in a larger number of patients where the objective will be to refine a physiological signature predictive of clinical deterioration in COVID-19 patients so that early hospitalisation and relevant medical interventions can be arranged.