Benefits of prehabilitation in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Benefits of prehabilitation in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Tessa Renouf Pre-doctoral clinical academic fellow, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, England
Rebecca Martin Advanced nurse practitioner, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To increase your awareness of the interest in prehabilitation during neoadjuvant chemotherapy

  • To find out what benefits prehabilitation during neoadjuvant chemotherapy can have for patients

  • To acknowledge the need for further research into prehabilitation during neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Prehabilitation in patients receiving cancer treatment can take the form of diet, exercise and/or psychological interventions. There is growing interest in prehabilitation in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (chemotherapy before surgery), which is a relatively new intervention. A scoping review of the literature was undertaken to assess the benefits of prehabilitation in that patient population. Twenty-four studies reporting on multimodal and unimodal prehabilitation interventions delivered to adults with cancer during neoadjuvant chemotherapy were reviewed.

The findings show that prehabilitation interventions in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy appear to be feasible. Many studies demonstrated, as secondary outcomes, benefits for patients such as improvements in response to treatment, fitness level and quality of life, and reductions in post-operative complications, post-operative length of stay and unplanned admissions. However, the studies were mainly feasibility and pilot studies conducted in a single site with a small sample size. Larger-scale research with more robust methodologies is warranted, particularly into the psychological elements of prehabilitation interventions.

Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2022.e1818

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@Tessaren

Correspondence

tessa.renouf@rmh.nhs.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Renouf T, Martin R (2022) Benefits of prehabilitation in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2022.e1818

Published online: 27 July 2022

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