Digital therapeutic to improve treatment persistence and quality of life in older cancer patients

Older cancer patients frequently face long and complex treatment regimens, often involving oral therapies taken over extended periods. While these treatments can offer significant clinical benefit, many patients struggle to remain persistent over time due to side effects, treatment fatigue, emotional burden and reduced motivation. Poor persistence directly impacts treatment effectiveness, quality of life and health outcomes, and remains one of the most under-addressed challenges in oncology care for older populations.

Gratiago is developing a patient-centred digital therapeutic designed to support older cancer patients throughout their treatment journey. Grounded in behavioural science, positive psychology and personalised digital engagement, the solution helps patients stay motivated, manage daily treatment challenges and remain persistent over time. The platform delivers adaptive reminders, encouragements and contextualised interactions aligned with the patient’s profile, treatment phase and individual needs.

Beyond patient support, the solution integrates the collection of patient-reported outcomes (PROMs), patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) and persistence-related real-world data. These data provide valuable insights for clinicians and researchers, enabling a better understanding of treatment burden, patient behaviour and quality of life evolution in real-world settings.

Within the scope of the EU Mission Cancer call “Improve the Quality of Life of older cancer patients”, Gratiago aims to co-develop and clinically validate a digital intervention that:

• improves treatment persistence in older cancer patients,

• enhances emotional well-being and perceived quality of life,

• supports patient–clinician communication through structured real-world data,

• integrates seamlessly into existing oncology care pathways.

Gratiago is seeking to join or build a European consortium with clinical centres, research organisations, patient associations and complementary technology or health system partners interested in patient-centred, digitally enabled approaches to improve quality of life and outcomes for older cancer patients.