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Dr. Kim Mulvihill ReportingAdolescents and young adults are diagnosed with cancer at twice the rate as small children. Because they're teens, they have a tougher time sticking to their treatments. Now there's an innovative way to keep their resolve up as they battle their disease.
Jeremy Hahn was diagnosed with ewing's sarcoma, a bone cancer.
Jeremy Hahn: "I'm concentrating on my chemo, trying to stay upbeat."
He's already been through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. But the cancer came back, landing Jeremy back in the hospital for more treatment.
So, the 23-year old Californian is getting ready to play a video game. Jeremy is not just blasting away at space aliens or blowing enemy planes to smithereens, he's actually fighting his cancer.
The game is called "Remission." It's helping young patients like Jeremy cope with their cancer.
Jeremy Hahn: "My first treatments breezed through because, literally, I had that video game."
"Re-mission" takes patients on a journey inside the body and shows the battle that goes on with cancer
Pam Cato, PhD, HOPELAND Co-Founder: "It's a third-person shooter where you watch Roxxi, a character on the screen. She's a nanobot who goes through your body through a port that you have to fight cancer, and a lot of side effects that are associated with cancer."
It doesn't hurt that roxxi is a babe who shoots cancer cells.
Dr. Cato: "The way Roxxi fights the enemies in the body is with all the treatments and medications that you use to fight cancer."
The state-of-the art game has twenty levels and can challenge the best of gamers.
Jeremy Hahn: "I play everything and this, by far, took me a little while."
Dr. Pamela Cato is co-founder of Hopelab in Palo Alto, the nonprofit organization that created "Remission".
Dr. Cato: "We wanted to make the game a bit edgy for teens, so it's for them. If we took all the edginess out, it would just feel like an educational game, and we know teens don't like to play that."
But Remission is doing more than just helping patients cope. A recent study found kids with cancer who played the game got some big benefits, benefits that helped them fight the cancer.
Dr. Cato: "They increased their quality of life, their ability to manage their illness, their knowledge and they also took their medication more."
The video game is free and is rated for teens and young adults.
