Video Game Helps Cancer Patients to Fight Cancer?

Interesting article over at LiveScience.com talks about a game called Re-mission that aims at helping cancer patients fight their illness “figuratively and literally.”  Here is the article in its entirety:

A new video game might prove to be a very productive use of time for young cancer patients: It helps kids fight their diseases figuratively and literally.

The game, called “Re-mission,” is a 20-level journey through the bodies of fictional patients suffering from different types of cancer, and of course, it can be played by adults and healthy folks as well. But the primary idea is to give patients a sense of control over their disease.

Players control an animation of a nano-sized robot named Roxxi who blasts cancer cells and battles bacterial infections; gamers must also manage real, life-threatening side effects.

Studies of young cancer patients who played the game showed they were more likely to take their medicine, to undergo treatment and to have a better understanding of their disease, according to CIGNA, the company that distributed the game (the non-profit organization HopeLab created the game).

“It taught me what I was going through and let me be more involved in my recovery,” said 17-year-old leukemia survivor Dan Neumann, in a video released by CIGNA.

Despite the bad rap video games get as addictive and as overly sedentary activities, especially for kids and teens, they can be useful in distracting patients of all ages from the symptoms of their diseases and the side effects of treatments, according to a 2005 editorial in the British Medical Journal written by Dr. Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University.

Griffiths said video games can be useful in pain management, as they focus attention away from painful sensations. They can also distract children undergoing chemotherapy, and several studies reported that children who played video games had less nausea after treatment and needed fewer medications to manage the nausea, he said.

Video games can also be used in physiotherapy and occupational therapy–for example, as a way to increase hand strength—and as a way for children with learning disabilities to develop social and spatial ability skills, Griffiths said.

The article focuses primarily on the game’s effects on the patient, which I can relate to in a similar way.  The article refers to video games’ abilities to be “distracting,” which, in the article’s case, is helpful to get patients to forget about their pain.  Similarly, I often use video games for the exact same result.  While my pain is no where near as excrutiating as a cancer patient’s, the ability to be distracted makes it far easier to forget your situation. 

The game’s developer is called HopeLab, a non-profit organization dedicated to doing cancer research as well as providing information and solutions to cancer patients.  Interestingly, Re-mission was released to cancer patients in April 2006, but is available for download at the game’s official website.

The following is a cheesy, but informative video on the making of Re-mission:

Just because I can’t say video games aren’t the cure for cancer doesn’t mean that they don’t help cancer patients.  Also, compared to a cancer patient’s other treatments, the worst side effect he or she will experience from playing video games is probably a headache.  While this certainly isn’t a huge step towards fighting cancer, it is step nonetheless.  It is good to see video games being put to noble and humane uses.