According to a report in the journal Pediatrics, special video games can help the young cancer patients to take their prescribed medicine.

“Targeted video games can help improve the lives of young people with cancer, most importantly improve their adherence to their treatment,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Pamela M. Kato of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands,

Playing a specially designed video game can help adolescents and young adult cancer patients adhere more closely to their prescribed treatment. A study was conducted on 375 male and female patients 13 to 29 years old being treated at centers in the US, Canada and Australia. They were assigned to play “Re-Mission” or “Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb,” a standard video game not focused on cancer care.

Patients in both groups were asked to play their assigned game for at least an hour a week, and 22 % of those in the comparison group and 33 % of those in the Re-Mission group actually did so over the course of the 3-month study.

Research results said that there was 16% rise in antibiotic adherence in those who played Re-Mission. They took 62.3 % of their total prescribed antibiotic medications, compared to 52.5 % for the Indiana Jones group. Adherence to a standard chemotherapy drug was also higher in the Re-Mission group.

The researchers said that adherence is the major problem in adolescents. While dramatic improvements in survival have been seen in pediatric cancer patients, they add, death rates among teens and young adult patients have not followed this trend. “They’re kind of a tough group that gets a little bit lost in the system,” Kato said.

“To me it was kind of changing their reward system for taking chemo and giving them a different insight,” Kato said explaining that the game gave the patients a new way of looking at their illness and hence the result.

Re-Mission (http://www2.re-mission.net) can be downloaded free from the Web site by patients and medical professionals. It is a 3-D game developed by HopeLab, a Redwood City, California-based non-profit company. The game is all about controlling a tiny robot called Roxxi in a 3-D environment which represents the inside of the body of a young cancer patient. Players are allowed to blast cancer cells and control side effects via Roxxi. Taking chemotherapy drugs and antibiotics, using relaxation techniques, eating food and keeping up with other types of self-care are needed to win the game.