Wearable Sensor for Biometrics During Locoregional Therapy for Head and Neck Cancer

Active cancer treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy can cause side effects or toxicities, which, if untreated, can lead to poorer quality of life, decreased patient well-being, and worse clinical outcomes. Routine monitoring of patients while under active treatment can entail the routine practice of clinic visits at regular intervals with the acquisition of vital signs, routine laboratory testing, patient-reported outcome surveys, and face-to-face interaction with their physician. In recent years, the availability of commercially-available wearable fitness sensors has allowed end-users to monitor their fitness progress and activity levels. These devices depend on small sensors that can collect minute-to-minute data on heart rate and activity level that may be transmitted to a smartphone or computer. Through this system, users can easily track and monitor their fitness progress. In this trial, the investigator will seek to determine the feasibility of wearable biometric sensors to acquire high resolution biometric data, including heart rate and activity level (i.e. steps) for patients undergoing radiation therapy and surgery, with or without postoperative radiotherapy. The investigator believe that changes in heart rate may predict for increasing pain, dehydration, and stress in general. Moreover, changes in daily step count are a surrogate for performance status on treatment, and the investigator will perform a series of preliminary analyses to assess whether there is validity to this hypothesis. The investigator hope to use biometric monitoring to identify patients at risk for adverse outcomes, with the ultimate goal of intervening before these outcomes occur.