Moving the Needle Forward in Cancer Rehabilitation

When looking towards the future, Jessica Cheng, MD, hopes that patients and clinicians will underscore the importance of adding cancer rehabilitation into treatment plans as the field becomes more widespread.

She noted that with the implementation of cancer rehabilitation into treatment strategies, performance status and function can be significantly improved, which may correlate with better outcomes and reduced hospital stays. Cheng, assistant clinical professor in the Department of Supportive Care Medicine at City of Hope, wants the word to spread about this niche area, as it may allow for more informed treatment decisions and serve as an “integral part of the cancer space”.

With her catchphrase of “prehab for all”, she hopes that colleagues will learn more about cancer rehabilitation and what it can mean for their patients. By developing a greater understanding of cancer rehabilitation, practices may help patients navigate their treatment course more easily while aiding their recovery following therapy.

Transcript:

I see the value of rehabilitation medicine in the cancer space as an integral part of the cancer space. My heart’s desire is that every institution that takes care of patients with cancer will recognize the importance of optimizing function and performance status from the beginning and throughout the cancer journey from prehabilitation to rehabilitation. There’s a lot of room for growth there.

My catchphrase recently is “prehab for all”. I want everyone to be armed with this knowledge of what they can do that’s in their control to optimize their abilities for meaningful activities throughout the cancer journey. I hope that oncologists and rehabilitation physicians alike will see that there’s an opportunity with cancer prehabilitation to enable [patients] to get their cancer treatment, get through it better, and recover better. That’s my hope: that this will just spread even more like wildfire than it already is.