Postoperative exercise-based rehabilitation in lung cancer – aspects of kinesiotherapy

Abstract

Surgery is the main modality for treatment of patients with stage I, II and, partly, III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). However, lung parenchyma resection and possible postoperative complications may impair respiratory and motor functions. Postoperative rehabilitation of patients with lung cancer requires the consideration of benefi t-risk assessment, specifi c limitations and all aspects of multidisciplinary treatment. The main aim of this narrative review was to analyze practical aspects of the published studies, especially the type and effi ciency of rehabilitation and prognostic value of the end-points used. Online literature databases: Medline, PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus and ScienceDirect were searched up to June 2015. Included papers consider postoperative rehabilitation in NSCLC, focused on kinesiotherapy. Combination of moderate to high-intensity aerobic training with submaximal progressive resistance training is reportedly associated with a measurable increase in VO2peak and 6MWT in patients operated on for lung cancer. This mixed method of training may improve quality of life and lengthen life expectancy. FEV1 seems to be an unreliable parameter in the assessment of rehabilitation efficiency of in lung cancer patients. Patients who underwent adjuvant chemotherapy have worse results of postoperative rehabilitation and may require special training program. Efficiency of supervised training is better. The findings of this narrative review suggest that postoperative exercise-based rehabilitation in patients with NSCLC appears to be well tolerated, safe and effective. Although there is an urgent need to confirm the great importance of this field of rehabilitation in larger randomized controlled clinical trials.