Cancer prehabilitation has the potential to decrease morbidity, improve physical and psychological well-being and reduce costs, according to a new review published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Prehabilitation is the process whereby a patient and care providers actively take steps to optimize the patient's health in the time window between diagnosis and active treatment of a cancer.
Examining more than 30 years of prehabilitiation research, the reviewers found that patient strength, recovery time, length of inpatient stay, psychological health and overall wellness were consistently better in patients who had undergone prehabilitation before cancer treatment compared to those who did not.
Though prehabilitation is not a novel concept, the study authors commented that this is the first time it has been formally reviewed for suitability of inclusion as a generalized protocol for cancer treatment.
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