Avatar-Based Strategies for Breast Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide, and its burden has been rising over the past decades. As Internet or smartphone applications can be useful in addressing psychological burdens in cancer patients, these new tools represent an innovative research topic. Furthermore, among those new technological strategies, avatar-based treatments are starting to be considered a promising way to provide educational and psychological support to breast cancer (BC) patients. However, to date, no study has investigated the potential benefits that avatar-based technology could represent for improving the quality of life (QoL) and well-being of BC patients. ABSTRACT: There is a lack of studies to determine if avatar-based protocols could be considered an efficient and accurate strategy to improve psychological well-being in oncology patients, even though it represents a growing field of research. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review addressing the effectiveness of avatar-based treatments to enhance quality of life (QoL) and psychological well-being in breast cancer patients. The purpose of this study was to review the scientific literature of those studies involving avatar-based technology and breast cancer patients in order to answer the following questions. (1) Are avatar-based strategies useful to im-prove QoL and psychological well-being (anxiety and depression symptoms) in breast cancer patients? (2) Which is the best way to develop avatar-based protocols for breast cancer patients? We conducted a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature from EBSCO, Ovid, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science (WOS), following the PRISMA statements and using “avatar + breast cancer” or “avatar + cancer” as keywords. Studies which were published in either English or Spanish and which addressed QoL and psychological well-being in breast cancer patients were reviewed. The results will contribute to developing innovative avatar-based strategies focused on breast cancer patients.