Linda Douw

Amsterdam UMC

In short, the research of Linda Douw entails the following:

FAIR-CARE: From AI-powered symptom networks to Relief in CAncer Related fatiguE

Cancer-related fatigue is one of the most common and burdensome problems for people living with and beyond cancer. Many patients feel extremely tired in a way that does not get better with rest and strongly affects their daily lives. Although this problem is very widespread, doctors and researchers still do not fully understand why some patients develop this severe fatigue while others do not. Treatments are available, but they do not work for everyone, and we cannot yet predict who will benefit.

FAIR-CARE aims to change that by looking at fatigue in a new way. Instead of studying symptoms one by one, we will look at how symptoms interact with each other. For example, a person who is very tired may also sleep poorly, feel low in mood, or worry about the future. These symptoms do not happen in isolation: they form a web that ultimately influences how a person feels. Using advanced artificial intelligence methods, we will build symptom networks that show how different symptoms connect to cancer-related fatigue. We will study thousands of patients with different types of cancer, including rare cancers, to see what patterns separate fatigued patients from those who are not fatigued. In the second part of the project, we will study patients who underwent fatigue treatments to learn which symptom patterns predict who benefits and who does not.

The results of this work will help doctors better understand cancer related fatigue, reduce unnecessary tests or questionnaires, and ultimately guide future treatments so that patients receive care that fits their individual needs.