THE ROLE OF PHYSIOTHERAPY IN CANCER CARE

N. Adriaenssens¹, K. Lyudmilova², N. Strimpakos³, N. Rotem⁴, G. Sheill⁵, M. Cannone⁶, L. Gigli⁷, L. Tiesnese⁸, A. Descloux⁹, A. MacKenzie¹⁰, C. Suarez-Serrano¹¹

¹Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Rehabilitation Research - Medical Oncology, Jette (Brussels), Belgium, ²National Sports Academy, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Sofia, Bulgaria, ³University of Thessaly, Department of Physiotherapy, Lamia, Greece, ⁴Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Department of Physiotherapy, Tel Aviv, Israel, ⁵Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute, Dublin, Ireland, ⁶Fondazione Centri di Riabilitazione Padre Pio – Onlus, San Severe FG - Foggia, Italy, ⁷Head of Rehabilitation Service, ASL Roma 3, Rome, Italy, ⁸Latvian Physiotherapy association, Riga, Latvia, ⁹Physioswiss, Bern, Switzerland, ¹⁰Clinical lead Physiotherapy Department. NHS Grampian Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, ¹¹University of Seville, Department of Physiotherapy, Seville, Spain

Background: Physiotherapists have strong knowledge and skills to deal with many of the functional problems that result from cancer treatment. The role of physiotherapy spans from cancer prevention to palliative and end of life care. Physiotherapeutic interventions offer a solution for many of the impairments experienced by patients living with and beyond cancer such as declines in physical function and quality of life. Specialised physiotherapeutic interventions can manage complex cancer-related side effects.

Purpose: The aim of this review is to outline the role of physiotherapy in the pathway of cancer patients.

Methods: The research was performed by eleven physiotherapists expert in oncology between March and October 2021 by using PubMed, PeDro and clinical guidelines databases. The document was divided according to the phases of the pathway of cancer patients: primary and secondary prevention, prehabilitation, during cancer treatment, post-treatment cancer rehabilitation, long-term rehabilitation of people living after cancer and advanced cancer; it shows the role of physiotherapy as an effective treatment and develops statements for each phase. The document was reviewed by three external reviewers, who provided feedback to improve the final version.

Results: Ten statements were developed by the working group, including general statements and statements for the different phases of the cancer pathway. An infographic compiles all the statements providing a general and graphic vision of the role of physiotherapy in cancer care, based on the evidence.

Conclusions: With some types of cancer, research has shown that exercise can manage many side-effects of cancer and cancer treatment, reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and increase survival.
Physiotherapists have strong knowledge and skills to deal with many of the functional problems that result from cancer treatment.

Implications: Rehabilitation services, including physiotherapy, should be integrated at the point of diagnosis to assess an individual's baseline functional performance status and inform about the cancer care plan.

Funding acknowledgements: (Co)author(s) were not paid, but their national Physiotherapy associations sponsored their participation in the Europe region’s Cancer Working Group.

Keywords:
Cancer
Rehabilitation
Exercise-oncology

Topics:
Oncology, HIV & palliative care
Professional practice: other
Disability & rehabilitation

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Reason: As stated at the top of this section, ethical approval was not required for our narrative review.