The use of immersive virtual reality for cancer-related cognitive impairment assessment and rehabilitation: A clinical feasibility study

Objective: This brief study aimed to examine the potential effects of virtual reality (VR)-assisted cognitive reha-bilitation intervention on the health outcomes of patients with cancer.Methods: A single group of pre-test and post-test study designs were used. An innovative VR system was developed to assess cancer-related cognitive impairment and provide cognitive rehabilitation. The potential effects of the system were determined by measuring changes in cognitive function (learning and memory, information pro-cessing speed, executive function, and verbal fluency) and the severity of depression, anxiety, and insomnia.Results: Nine subjects completed the entire VR intervention and were included in the analysis. The participants' mean age was 43.3 years (standard deviation, 8.9 years). The VR-based cognitive intervention significantly improved the subjective cognitive measures of perceived cognitive impairment and perceived cognitive ability (P = 0.01 and P < 0.01, respectively). The intervention also improved the objective cognitive measures of verbal learning memory as measured using the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (eg., P < 0.01 for 5-min delay recall), information processing speed as measured using the trail-making test-A (P = 0.02) and executive function as measured using the trail-making test-B (P = 0.03). Only the subtest of delayed recall showed no statistically significant difference after the intervention (P = 0.69). The VR-based psychological intervention significantly reduced the severity of sleep disorders (P < 0.01).Conclusions: The use of immersive VR was shown to have potential effects on improving cognitive function for patients with cancer. Future studies will require a larger sample size to examine the effects of immersive VR-assisted cognitive rehabilitation on the health outcomes of patients with cancer.