Trial reportJournal of medical Internet research2024
Digital Therapeutic (Mika) Targeting Distress in Patients With Cancer: Results From a Nationwide Waitlist Randomized Controlled Trial.
Trial report in Journal of medical Internet research, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of just-in-time adaptive interventions for improving mental health and psychological well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ mental health · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of Remote Web-Based Interventions on the Physiological and Psychological States of Patients With Cancer: Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Pooled it
- Improving quality of life in cancer patients with an app-based intervention (Mika-App): secondary results from a randomized controlled waitlist-trial in Germany.Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik, medizinische Psychologie · 2026Trial
- Integrating digital solutions improves mental health management in cancer care.Communications medicine · 2026Review
- Artificial intelligence to meet the psychosocial needs of cancer patients: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2026Article
- Network analysis of distress, symptom burden, social support, and digital health literacy in older postoperative patients with gastric cancer.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of digital interventions for mental health in cancer patients and survivors.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Mental Comorbidity and Psychosocial Care in Patients with Cancer.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2025Article
- Mobile health intervention CanRelax reduces distress in people with cancer in a randomized controlled trial.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Quality of life in older patients with cancer and related unmet needs: a scoping review.Acta oncologica (Stockholm, Sweden) · 2025Article
- Electronic patient-reported outcomes as digital therapeutics for patients with cancer: a narrative review of current practices and future directions.International journal of clinical oncology · 2025Review
- Digital support and artificial intelligence in cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy: patient utilization, acceptance and attitudes.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- [Psycho-oncology-psychosocial distress and supportive care needs].Urologie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Unmet supportive care needs among cancer patients: exploring cancer entity-specific needs and associated factors.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2024Article
- Feasibility and Acceptability of an App-Based, Multimodal Prehabilitation Program for Women Undergoing Surgery for Gynaecological Cancer.Cancer control : journal of the Moffitt Cancer CenterArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDistress is highly prevalent among patients with cancer, but supportive care needs often go unmet. Digital therapeutics hold the potential to overcome barriers in cancer care and improve health outcomes.
objectiveThis study conducted a randomized controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of Mika, an app-based digital therapeutic designed to reduce distress across the cancer trajectory.
methodsThis nationwide waitlist randomized controlled trial in Germany enrolled patients with cancer across all tumor entities diagnosed within the last 5 years. Participants were randomized into the intervention (Mika plus usual care) and control (usual care alone) groups. The participants completed web-based assessments at baseline and at 2, 6, and 12 weeks. The primary outcome was the change in distress from baseline to week 12, as measured by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Distress Thermometer. Secondary outcomes included depression, anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), fatigue (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue), and quality of life (Clinical Global Impression-Improvement Scale). Intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses were performed. Analyses of covariance were used to test for outcome changes over time between the groups, controlling for baseline.
resultsA total of 218 patients (intervention: n=99 and control: n=119) were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. Compared with the control group, the intervention group reported greater reductions in distress (P=.03; ηp²=0.02), depression (P<.001; ηp²=0.07), anxiety (P=.03; ηp²=0.02), and fatigue (P=.04; ηp²=0.02). Per-protocol analyses revealed more pronounced treatment effects, with the exception of fatigue. No group difference was found for quality of life.
conclusionsMika effectively diminished distress in patients with cancer. As a digital therapeutic solution, Mika offers accessible, tailored psychosocial and self-management support to address the unmet needs in cancer care.
trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register (DRKS) DRKS00026038; https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00026038.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.