Establishing a Cancer Rehabilitation Service in a Middle-Income Country: an Experience from Brazil.

Abstract

Our aim is to provide a historical review of the implementation of a cancer rehabilitation center in Brazil, active since 2008. We expect this data to support the implementation of other centers both in Brazil and worldwide. Cancer rehabilitation delivery is fragmented and punctuated in most cases, and cancer rehabilitation centers are rare. Data on how to establish rehabilitation centers could facilitate the implementation of new centers. We provide data on what was our strategy for hiring, establishing treatment protocols, barriers, and facilitators. We also provide figures on the number of each rehabilitation specialist, as well as the general standard operating procedures of our rehabilitation center, among other features. Establishing cancer rehabilitation centers in a middle-income country is feasible. We expect that our experience may facilitate the establishment of new cancer rehabilitation services and the improvement of current ones.