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Decision
Prehabilitation
Getting fitter before treatment, in the weeks that are usually wasted waiting.
What it is
The gap between diagnosis and the start of treatment is typically two to six weeks of anxious waiting. Prehabilitation uses it: structured exercise, nutrition optimisation, anaemia and diabetes correction, smoking cessation, and psychological preparation.
It is one of the few interventions that costs almost nothing, uses capacity we already have, and makes a measurable difference to how a patient tolerates what follows.
When it is used
- Between diagnosis and surgery
- Before a demanding systemic or radiation course
- Before transplant or a long operation
- Wherever there are two or more weeks before treatment starts
How the decision is made
- What is actually correctable in the time available, anaemia, glycaemic control, nutrition, deconditioning.
- An exercise prescription matched to current fitness, not a generic instruction to walk more.
- Which of these needs to be fixed before treatment can safely proceed.
Physiotherapy, dietetics and psychology here; blood work through the diagnostics partner.
Who does what
What we handle, and what happens elsewhere
KPCIRC handles
- Baseline functional and nutritional assessment
- A supervised exercise programme with a home component
- Nutrition optimisation and protein targets
- Anaemia, glycaemic and smoking correction
- Psychological preparation and expectation setting
- A written handover to the treating team
Performed and billed elsewhere
- Blood tests
- Any procedure
- Do not start a new exercise programme unsupervised during this period without telling us, the right intensity depends on your counts, your heart and your disease.
Questions to ask your own doctor
Take these with you. They work whether or not you are treated here.
- Is there anything I should be fixing before treatment starts?
- What exercise is safe for me right now?
- What should I be eating, and how much protein?
- Will any of this delay my treatment? (It should not.)
Support that goes with it
Where this is used
Cancers this commonly forms part of
Colorectal cancer
Colon and rectal cancer, bowel cancer
Stomach cancer
Gastric cancer
Lung & thoracic cancer
Non-small cell and small cell lung cancer, mesothelioma, thymic tumours
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Ovarian cancer
Epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube and primary peritoneal cancer
Not sure this is the right option for you?
That is exactly what a second opinion is for. Bring what you have, we will tell you what is missing and what the alternatives actually are, in writing.