Video game tested by area cancer patients
Studies show it helps with treatment
BY MICHELLE L. START Correspondent

COURTESY PHOTO The video game Remission, developed by HopeLab, is designed to help young people with cancer inprove their health and quality of life. It was recently tested here in Southwest Florida.

Seven Southwest Florida teenage boys - all cancer patients - were among the first in the world to fight-off bacteria and cancer cells with an Angelina Jolie-looka like character named Roxxi in a video game designed to help young people with cancer improve their health and quality of life.

The game, called Re-mission, was designed by HopeLab and is now being distributed for free by CIGNA HealthCare.

The boys were a part of a study that involved 375 people between the ages of 13 and 29 in 34 health care facilities in the United States, Canada and Australia. The boys participated at the Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida.

Children's Hospital Clinical research nurse Carolyn Bell said some of the boys played Re-Mission while others in the control group instead played Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb.

"There was a marked difference in health literacy and understanding the disease," said Joe Mondy, assistant vice president for CIGNA HealthCare, explaining the difference between the control group and the one who played Re-Mission. "The game teaches you about cancer and about treatment. We know teens resist when lectured, but after playing the game they felt more strongly that they could beat the disease and they were more compliant with medical treatment."

In addition, young people who played Re-Mission maintained higher blood levels of chemotherapy and showed higher rates of antibiotic utilization than those in the control group, according to the study results.

"It was really cool technology," said Bell. "I never heard anything negative about the game from the participants. I think it was a great idea and a way to get input from the teens. A lot of times adolescents just are not addressed. I think the game took away some of the pressure, gave them relief and helped them to understand. It almost made adolescents more accountable with their disease and had them take responsibility for it."

In 2006, there were 98,960 Floridians diagnosed with some form of cancer, according to information released by the American Cancer Society. Nationwide, some 9,500 children under the age of 14 were diagnosed with the disease in 2006. About 1,500 people die from cancer related illnesses every day in the United States.

Bell said Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida gets between 35 and 40 new cancer patients every year.

"Re-Mission works. It gives young people with cancer a sense of power and control over their disease," said Pat Christen, president of California-based HopeLab. "Re-Mission is a powerful example of how rigorous research and rational engineering combined with fun, engaging game technology can improve lives."

Re-Mission was developed by HopeLab through a collaborative process that included video game developers and animators, cancer experts, cell biologists, psychologists, and young people with cancer. The game has 20 levels that combine scientific accuracy with a depiction of young people's challenges with cancer. It is a three dimensional shooter game, in which players control a nanobot named Roxxi as she travels through the bodies of fictional cancer patients to destroy cancer cells, battle bacterial infections, and manage side effects associated with cancer and cancer treatments.

Games can be ordered online at www. cigna.com/re-mission.