The chemotherapy session of a patient with stage IV colon cancer at a Canadian hospital was livestreamed on Facebook yesterday in an effort to demystify the treatment for other would-be chemo recipients.
The idea was the brainchild of patient Michelle Prince and the staff at the Windsor Regional Hospital in Ontario, Canada.
“I thought if we could pull back the curtain today and show people what it’s like, people will think, ‘Okay, this is doable. I can do this’,” Prince told local CTV News before the infusion.
“I think that if people can take away that it’s not such a scary place…then we’ve done a big step forward,” she said.
It is believed to be the first-ever broadcast of chemotherapy session in which the patient received and answered questions from viewers in real time, said Allison Johnson, manager of communications at the hospital.
Four hundred people attended the live event, which was Prince’s 56th chemotherapy session since her colon cancer diagnosis in 2014. There have been an additional 20,000 views on Facebook since yesterday, Johnson told Medscape Medical News.
The attendance and viewing of the event was partly credited to Ms Prince’s substantial local following in Ontario. A successful chiropractor and the wife of a former mayor of Windsor, Ms Prince also has a popular Facebook account.
Ms Prince said she was terrified about initially undergoing the treatment.
Before her first session, she envisioned a chemo suite filled with people who were sick, vomiting, and bald.
“When I got here, it was a completely different experience than I anticipated,” she said.
Prompted by the stark contrast of her fears vs the reality of an infusion, Ms Prince asked hospital staff about somehow recording a chemotherapy session for other new patients to view.
The proposal fit neatly into Windsor Regional Hospital’s existing webcast, known as Canswers Centre Live, a chat format that connects cancer patients with a hospital expert.
Ms Prince was excited during the infusion session. “The adrenaline is kicking in,” she said at the broadcast’s beginning. However, she tired toward the end of the hour-long webcast. But along the way, Ms Prince discussed staying hydrated during a session, using mints to obviate the chemical taste in her mouth, and dealing with “chemobrain,” as well as medical marijuana and a variety of other topics.
Follow Medscape senior journalist Nick Mulcahy on Twitter: @MulcahyNick
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