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The weakest link: the inter‑cycle gap in oncology

The Problem

In systemic breast cancer treatments, most serious toxicities emerge at the patient’s home, between chemotherapy or immunotherapy cycles, when intensive hospital monitoring is no longer in place. This care gap translates into unplanned emergency visits, avoidable readmissions, and a significant clinical, economic, and emotional burden for patients, families, and health systems. Conventional early warning scores were designed for inpatient settings with intermittent measurements. They are not optimized to interpret continuous biosensor signals in real‑life conditions, nor to distinguish normal physiological variability and sensor artifacts from true clinical deterioration in vulnerable oncology patients.

Real world references

Three core references supporting the problem.

Ambulatory toxicity peak & inter‑visit gap
“Chemotherapy is associated with a significant risk of toxicity, which often peaks between ambulatory visits to the cancer centre.”»

Krzyzanowska, et.al.

Ambulatory Toxicity Management (AToM) Pilot Study, Supportive Care in Cancer (2019)

Unplanned ED visits and admissions in cancer
«Studies consistently show high rates of unplanned emergency department visits and hospital admissions among cancer patients during treatment, driven by uncontrolled symptoms and treatment‑related complications».

Nasser, J. et.al.

Unplanned Emergency Department Visits within 30-Days of Mastectomy and Breast Recostruction (2019)

Limitations of current early warning scores & value of continuous monitoring
“Currently used tools for early recognition of clinical deterioration have high sensitivity, but low specificity and are based on infrequent measurements… A wearable, multi‑parameter real‑time warning score allowed early detection of high‑risk deterioration more than 40 hours before it occurred.”

Eisenkraft,A. et.al.

MPRT‑WS real‑time detection tool, Critical Care (2023)