Imagine that you're working in a research laboratory during the day. You watch cancer cells multiplying under a microscope. At night, you go home and play video games with your family and friends. Then you get the idea that a video game for young people with cancer might play a positive role in helping them fight their disease. A video game designed especially for kids with cancer might give them a feeling of power over their disease as they blast away at the cancer cells. And you could use top-notch research to test the game and see if it really works. That's exactly what HopeLab founder and board chair Pam Omidyar imagined. In 2001, Pam founded HopeLab to make this idea a reality.

The result is Re-Mission, a video game with 20 levels that takes the player on a journey through the body of young patients with different kinds of cancer. The game was created by HopeLab staff in collaboration with video game developers and animators and scientific and medical consultants. Re-Mission is designed to be fun and challenging, while helping players stick to their prescribed treatments and giving them a sense of power and control over their disease.

Teens and young adults with cancer participated actively throughout the game development process to ensure that the game was fun, and that it really spoke to the issues that they confront every day in their fight against cancer. 

Prior to the release of Re-Mission, HopeLab completed an unprecedented randomized, research trial to evaluate the efficacy of the game. Results showed that a specially designed video game can have positive impact on health behaviors in young people with chronic illness. Specifically, playing Re-Mission improved treatment adherence and produced increases in self-efficacy, and cancer-related knowledge for adolescents and young adults with cancer. Data from the study was published in the August 2008 edition of the medical journal Pediatrics.