Treating cancer as a game

Abstract

Imagine if you could shrink yourself down to the cellular level, inject yourself into a cancer ridden body, and blast the cancer to oblivion. Current treatments would soon become obsolete. In India, children with cancer might have the chance to combat their disease in such a way, well, at least virtually. Oncologists in India will soon be distributing free copies of the game Re-Mission to patients in a bid to help them adhere to treatment protocols. The player pilots an anthro po morphic nano bot named Roxxi who is injected into the bodies of young cancer patients to destroy tumours, conquer infections, and manage drug side-eff ects. Playing the game has been shown to improve treatment outcomes in young patients; those who played the game had better adherence to oral antibiotic prophylaxis and oral chemotherapy regimens. These improvements arise be cause young patients gain a better understanding about what is happening inside their body as a result of playing the game, thereby positively altering their behaviour towards treatment. Through constant interaction with the game, players engage in a sort of dynamic education, both consciously and passively learning about their disease. Interest in Re-Mission has been so great that neurological studies have even been done to assess brain function while playing the game. As it turns out, gameplay activates reward-related mesolimbic neural circuits. This fi nding means that playing the game can be rewarding, which will be good for patient uptake of the game, although this eff ect is probably what commercial video games companies have been capitalising on for decades. Serious games (ie, games with a primary purpose other than entertain ment) like Re-Mission have assumed various forms in the childhood-cancer setting. Ben’s Game and The Adventures of Captain Chemo were both developed to help educate patients about their disease. Communicating information about cancer to young patients can be diffi cult, especially during the initial diagnosis, when emotions are running high. Games like Re-Mission can help to overcome these barriers, acting almost like a bridge between the treatment and the patient. Not only do they enable young patients to better understand their condition, they can give hope by empowering them with the means to fi ght back aga inst their disease.