The Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality and Relaxing Videos on Lung Cancer Patients

Lung cancer is one of the types of cancer with a high incidence and mortality rate in the world and in our country. Frequently used protocols in the chemotherapy treatment of lung cancer are the Platinum-based drugs. The main side effects of this chemotherapy protocols are nausea, vomiting, neutropenia and fatigue. The side effects of cancer and chemotherapy cause patients to experience distress and their quality of life is adversely affected. Some non-pharmacological methods such as meditation, breathing exercises, and massage can be used to manage the symptoms experienced by patients due to chemotherapy for supportive care. One of these methods is virtual reality. In addition, audio-visual (video) therapy methods are other methods that can be used in the symptom management of these patients. In this study, the effect of interactive/immersive virtual reality intervention and relaxant video intervention on symptom severity, distress level and quality of life of patients diagnosed with lung cancer will be evaluated. Patients will be assigned to 3 groups: virtual reality intervention group (VR), relaxant video application group (RV) and control group (CG) by stratified randomization according to the disease stage and drug type. During the chemotherapy treatment, the patients will take interactive/immersive virtual reality (VR group) or relaxant video application (RV group) consisting of nature-themed scenarios. The interventions will be done 2 times and about 20 minutes in the first day of each chemotherapy cycle, in total 2 cycles. The control group will receive routine nursing care. Research data will be collected at different intervals during the chemotherapy course with the Patient Information Form (only once), the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale, the NCCN Distress Thermometer, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the Patient Follow-up Form and will be analyzed with the IBM SPSS program.