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.