Leveraging Telehealth for the Management of Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer affects 2.3 million women and kills 685,000 globally, making it the most prevalent cancer. The telemedicine modality has been used to treat the symptoms associated with breast cancer recovery. Objectives: To analyze the effectiveness of telemedicine to help women recover from the treatment-associated effects and promote overall recovery from breast cancer. Methods: Four databases were queried for published literature from the last 10 years. The systematic literature review was conducted in accordance with the Kruse Protocol and reported in accordance with PRISMA 2020. Results: Five interventions were identified in the literature, with the most dominant being eHealth and mHealth. The other interventions were telephone, video teleconference, and a combination of eHealth and mHealth. There were positive effects of these telemedicine interventions in 88% of the studies analyzed. Telemedicine is shown to positively affect physical and mental health, sleep outcomes, quality of life, and body image. The largest barriers to the adoption of telemedicine interventions are training, cost, workflow, time of providers, and low reimbursement. Conclusion: Telemedicine offers promise to both providers and breast cancer survivors to improve the physical and mental health detriments of both cancer and its associated treatments. It also helps women develop healthy habits to reduce the risk of reoccurrence.