The inequalities and challenges of prehabilitation before cancer surgery

Prehabilitation seeks to enhance functional capacity and preparedness before surgery with the aim of improving outcomes; it is generally based on exercise, diet and psychological interventions. While there is obvious appeal to this approach in terms of patient experience and resource use, the interventions are complex and the evidence base for prehabilitation before cancer surgery is heterogeneous. Prehabilitation requires patient understanding and motivation as well as commitment of resources. Programmes are challenging to design and implement, and can generate ‘intervention-based inequalities’ based on the capacity of patients to engage.

Find out why prehabilitation must be implemented carefully to avoid widening inequalities with this new podcast hosted by Professor Cliff Shelton and his coauthors.

Full paper here.

2025 Special Issue on Oncoanaesthesia here.