Multicentre, interventional, single-arm study protocol of telemonitored circadian rhythms and patient-reported outcomes for improving mFOLFIRINOX safety in patients with pancreatic cancer (MultiDom, NCT04263948)

Introduction: Circadian clocks regulate cellular proliferation and drug effects. Tolerability and/or efficacy of anticancer therapies have been improved by their administration according to circadian rhythms, while being predicted by circadian robustness. The combination of leucovorin, fluorouracil, irinotecan and oxaliplatin (mFOLFIRINOX) is a standard treatment for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), that generates grades 3-4 adverse events in the majority of patients and an estimated 15%-30% emergency admission rate. The MultiDom study evaluates whether mFOLFIRINOX safety can be improved using a novel circadian-based telemonitoring-telecare platform in patients at home. The detection of early warning signals of clinical toxicities could guide their early management, possibly preventing emergency hospital admissions.

Methods and analysis: This multicentre, interventional, prospective, longitudinal, single-arm study hypothesises that the mFOLFIRINOX-related emergency admission rate will be 5% (95% CI 1.7% to 13.7%), among 67 patients with advanced PDAC. Study participation is 7 weeks for each patient, including a reference week before chemotherapy onset and 6 weeks afterwards. Accelerometry and body temperature are measured q1-min using a continuously worn telecommunicating chest surface sensor, daily body weight is self-measured with a telecommunicating balance and 23 electronic patient-reported outcomes (e-PROs) are self-rated using a tablet. Hidden Markov model, spectral analyses and other algorithms automatically compute physical activity, sleep, temperature, body weight change, e-PRO severity and 12 circadian sleep/activity parameters, including the dichotomy index I<O (% activity 'in-bed' below median activity 'out-of-bed'), once to four times daily. Health professionals access visual displays of near-real time parameter dynamics and receive automatic alerts, with trackable digital follow-up.

Ethics and dissemination: The study has been approved by the National Agency for Medication and Health Product Safety (ANSM) and Ethics Committee West V (2 July 2019; third amendment, 14 June 2022). The data will be disseminated at conferences and in peer-reviewed journals and will support large-scale randomised evaluation.

Trial registration numbers: NCT04263948 and ID RCB-2019-A00566-51.