Exercise-Based Rehabilitation in Patients with Lung Cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer was a rare disease at the start of the last century, but exposures to new etiologic agents and an increasing lifespan have combined to make it one of the most prevalent forms of the disease in the 21st century. Furthermore, lung cancer remains the most common cause of cancer-related death. Pre-operative QoL and exercise capacity are poor in patients with lung cancer and become worse following (surgical) treatment. Moreover, post-operative recovery of QoL and exercise tolerance are only partial over extended periods of time. Therefore, in patients with lung cancer, there is a clear indication for comprehensive peri- and post-operative exercise-based rehabilitation. Indeed, exercise-based pulmonary rehabilitation could prove to be a powerful non-pharmacological intervention to improve exercise performance and health status, irrespective of change in pulmonary function. To date, the effects of exercise-based rehabilitation in patients with lung cancer have not been extensively studied but preliminary results from small-scale intervention studies suggest that lung cancer patients are good candidates for peri- and post-operative pulmonary rehabilitation programmes.