An Illinois State University alumni who was diagnosed with a rare type of head and neck cancer is now working to develop a mobile app that should help spread awareness and create a community for cancer patients.
Moji Kalantari was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma in 2022 while studying at ISU.
Kalantari underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from her mouth, which affected the right side of her palate and jaw.
After graduating from ISU earlier this year with a master's degree in creative technologies, Kalantari moved to Toronto, where she's now pursuing a digital media Ph.D. She is also developing a mobile app that will help connect cancer patients across the globe to one another.
Speaking with WGLT, Kalantari explained what inspired her to develop her newest venture — her mobile app.
“My cancer is rare, so I was searching to find a person similar to my diagnosis,” Kalantari said. “I was unable to find, you know, a young, adult cancer patient with the same diagnosis as mine.”
“The idea of creating the app came from my personal experience,” Kalantari continued.
Kalantari’s husband, Alex Hashemi, who helps to speak for Kalantari, expanded on the idea behind the app.
“She [Kalantari] started exploring different types of social media groups or applications — she joined so many [to see if] she could find any light in the dark, you know,” Hashemi said. “Unfortunately, no, there was no such application [where] she could connect with someone with the same diagnosis.”
The working title for the app is YA Peer Match. YA stands for "young adult."
Kalantari said she only connected with one person from the U.S. while searching online, which further inspired her to develop the app.
"Having a person with [a] similar diagnosis or [the same] diagnosis is helpful," Kalantari said.
Hashemi also provided some insight into the status of the app and what it will entail. He said it will be available in app stores, hopefully within the next few months. The app will be free and will require users to register with their cancer strain and location. That will allow for better control of the content.
“The app aims to connect only cancer patients,” Hashemi said. “The other [objective] is to share their positive thoughts.”
The primary focus will be a peer group, which will provide an opportunity for those with the same cancer diagnosis to interact with one another.
Hashemi said the app will be more interactive than other social media apps like Facebook.
“Whenever she [Kalantari] joined a Facebook group, it was very hard to track a conversation because if you post something, so many people post other things and you lose the connection,” Hashemi said. “You never find a good answer for that situation. That was the reason that she created [specific pages] for any specific type of cancer.”
“This could be something as a kind of side job for her that — the benefit for her is to support the cancer patient community,” Hashemi continued.
Kalantari said she has prior experience with software development.
Before her cancer diagnosis, Kalantari had created a virtual reality [VR] experience called “The Bitter Truth” about the life of an immigrant. She said she has since added a new chapter to the game about her cancer experience.
Kalantari also created a second game after her cancer diagnosis called Know Me Better, which was meant to create awareness about cancer in a similar way that the app will.
Kalantari said she had submitted an article about this game to HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) International Conference, which was accepted and will be discussed at the 2025 conference in Sweden. The article is called “Know Me Better."
