Coinciding with World Lung Cancer Day, the UPV team, the Doctor Peset University Hospital and the Fisabio Foundation presented the latest progress of the initiative this Monday.
Lalaby-Lung is an app developed by a multidisciplinary team from the BDSLab group-ITACA and evaluated at the Doctor Peset University Hospital in Valencia (Fisabio Foundation). Its aim is to collect real-time information on the socio-health quality of life of people with lung cancer.
Lalaby-Lung gathers information about each patient using only their mobile phone, without the need for additional devices. It includes clinical questionnaires and automatically collects data from the phone’s sensors. In this way, it combines patients’ perceptions with objective records to offer a continuous and reliable overview of their quality of life.
For patient monitoring, oncology professionals access a web portal that displays graphical trends in indicators derived from both sensors (steps, movement, distance, number of calls, noise and light levels, screen use, data volume) and questionnaires (overall quality of life, functional status, general and specific symptoms, sleep quality, etc.).
Additionally, Lalaby-Lung allows clinicians to define alerts — for example, when overall quality of life drops below a threshold — and to mark important treatment milestones, such as chemotherapy cycles or medication schedules, and observe their impact on the patient’s progress.
“Our goal is to provide a stable, useful and minimally intrusive tool that helps personalise oncology care. With Lalaby-Lung we aim to anticipate significant changes in quality of life and support clinical decision-making,” says Sabina Asensio-Cuesta, principal investigator of the project at the UPV.
How do patients take part?
During their consultation and prior to starting treatment, each patient installs the app on their mobile phone. To facilitate its use, the team provides a short training session, a step-by-step manual and a participant information sheet.
“Participation is completely voluntary and may be discontinued at any time at the patient’s discretion,” notes Inmaculada Maestu, Head of the Oncology Department at the Doctor Peset University Hospital in Valencia and researcher at Fisabio.
From the proof of concept to a pilot with 100 patients
Lalaby-Lung began in 2018 with a proof of concept involving two patients over six weeks, which confirmed its technical feasibility and usability. The UPV–Doctor Peset–Fisabio team later conducted tests with another ten patients, which allowed them to validate the app and improve usability and the user experience.
Funding obtained from the ·Programa de Generación de Conocimiento del Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades» will allow the team to continue working on the project and offer the opportunity to participate to a further 100 patients up to 2027.
“For this project, we have developed a new interface inspired by the ‘Árbol de la vida’, incorporating visual elements from the Valencia region (orange and lemon trees) and colour palettes evoking the sea, light and sky. The aim is to create a serene and familiar environment that facilitates everyday use of the app,” concludes Sabina Asensio-Cuesta.
About Lalaby-Lung
Lalaby-Lung is a mobile application that enables real-time monitoring of the quality of life of people with lung cancer. It combines validated clinical questionnaires with digital phenotyping from phone sensors and includes a dashboard for professionals that facilitates longitudinal monitoring and early detection of significant changes.
More information: www.lalaby.es
