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Final Program


Final Program

883 - The Role of Prehabilitation in Functional Capacity During the Perioperative Period in Patients with Lung Cancer

Friday, February 28, 2025
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM MST

    Presenting Author(s)

  • AS

    Anju D. Sanchala, DO

    Resident Physician
    Burke Rehabilitation Hospital
    Ardsley, New York, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • JH

    Jennifer Hegedus, DO

    Resident Physician
    Burke Rehabilitation Hospital
    New Rochelle, New York, United States

  • MO

    Mooyeon Oh-Park, MD

    Chief Medical Officer
    Burke Rehabilitation Hospital
    White Plains, New York, United States

  • AT

    Andrew Tom, MD

    Attending Physician
    Burke Rehabilitation Hospital
    White Plains, New York, United States

Objectives: Lung cancer is the fifth leading cause of death among patients with cancer diagnoses in the U.S.  Although a lung resection is the most effective treatment option available, it comes with an increased risk of developing pulmonary and functional decline postoperatively. Prehabilitation is a fast-growing field consisting of nutritional education, mental health support, and physical exercise to better prepare patients for the stress of surgery and post-operative recovery. The objective of this narrative review is to examine the effectiveness of the prehabilitation program on function and endurance postoperatively in patients with lung cancer undergoing surgical intervention.

Design: We searched the PubMed database using the term "lung cancer prehabilitation", including articles published only after January 2000. The review included randomized control trials that incorporated exercise as a component of interventions and functional outcomes.

Results: Seven studies out of 36 were included for analysis after excluding 29 studies due to lack of randomization or absence of exercise in the prehabilitation program. The nature of the prehabilitation programs consisted of both aerobic exercise and resistance training at least three times a week for two weeks or more. Six out of seven studies found significant increases in functional capacity measured by the 6-minute walk test, incremental shuttle walk test, or VO2 max at one to three months post-operatively in the prehabilitation intervention group compared to the control group.

Conclusions: This review showed that prehabilitation consisting of exercise for at least two weeks with aerobic and strength training at least three times per week can increase the functional capacity post-operatively in individuals with lung cancer undergoing surgery. Due to the time constraints between diagnosis and planned surgery, patients often do not have the opportunity to participate in a prehabilitation program. Future studies may focus on the minimal effective dose and duration of the prehabilitation programs in this population.