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Lung Cancer Prehabilitation
Lung cancer prehabilitation or the newly diagnosed lung cancer patient “getting in shape” for surgery, chemo or radiation, has been shown to enhance treatment efficacy while also reducing side effects.
Let’s be honest. Most everyone knows how debilitating surgery, chemo and/or radiation can be for the cancer patient. Ever heard the saying that “the cure is worse than the disease?”
I am a long-term cancer survivor and I can tell you that all forms of conventional cancer therapies- surgery, chemo and radiation take a toll on the cancer patient. I’ve sustained long-term side effects from my many therapies. I wish I knew then what I know now…
Lung cancer prehabilitation can enhance the efficacy of therapy and improve your recovery.
Though many videos that talk about lung cancer prehabilitation focus on surgery, it’s important to understand that lung cancer prehabilitation is helpful for all forms of cancer therapy, including surgery, chemo, and radiation.
Prehabilitation
Are you a newly diagnosed lung cancer patient? What stage? What symptoms? Scroll down the page, post a question or a comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Prehabilitation in the lung cancer pathway: a scoping review
Background
Lung cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the UK. Treatment outcomes are poor and UK deaths from lung cancer are higher than any other cancer. Prehabilitation has shown to be an important means of preparing patients both physically and psychologically for cancer treatment. However, little is understood about the context and mechanisms of prehabilitation that can impact physiological and psychological wellbeing.
Our aim was to review and summarise primary research on prehabilitation in the lung cancer pathway using a realist approach.
Methods
A scoping review of empirical primary research was conducted. Five online medical databases from 2016 – February 2023 were searched. All articles reporting on prehabilitation in lung cancer were included in the review. For this review, prehabilitation was defined as either a uni-modal or multi-modal intervention including exercise, nutrition and/or psychosocial support within a home, community or hospital based setting. A realist framework of context, mechanism and outcome was used to assist with the interpretation of findings.
Results
In total, 31 studies were included in the review, of which, three were published study protocols. Over 95% of studies featured an exercise component as part of a prehabilitation programme. Twenty-six of the studies had a surgical focus. Only two studies reported using theory to underpin the design of this complex intervention. There was large heterogeneity across all studies as well as a lack of clinical trials to provide definitive evidence on the programme design, setting, type of intervention, patient criteria, delivery, duration and outcome measures used.
Conclusion
This scoping review demonstrates that there is evidence for providing prehabilitation for patients with lung cancer, particularly in the surgical domain. However, there is a lack of clinical trials which provide definitive evidence on the programme design, setting, type of intervention, patient criteria, delivery and duration. This therefore makes it difficult to conclude significant improvement benefit.
The design and implementation of future lung cancer prehabilitation programmes should take into account factors such as patient led values, needs, goals, support structures and beliefs which can affect the delivery and engagement of interventions. The findings of this review provide important insights into these issues.
Furthermore, future research should consider the use of a conceptual framework such as ARC [21] to conceptualise the living with and beyond cancer experience to help shape and inform personalised prehabilitation services. This will enable personalised care to be given from the outset and help support identification of the ideal prehabilitation model and delivery options to optimise both health and economic outcomes. This will enable patient empowerment and engagement towards self-managed behaviours and thus, optimise long-term health.