Oncological Rehabilitation

Abstract

An increasing number of patients are living with or surviving cancer due to improvements in detection and treatment. However, patients who survive cancer may experience functional disabilities that impact on health, quality of life and ability to work. For example, physical disorders may include fatigue, reduced muscle strength, cognitive dysfunction, paresthesia or nutrition problems, while mental symptoms may include anxiety, depression, fear of relapse or insomnia. Multidimensional oncological rehabilitation programs have been developed to address these disabilities and to help cancer patients and long-term survivors to reduce morbidity and to improve quality of life. There has been evidence showing that multidisciplinary oncological rehabilitation interventions involving physical, psycho-educational and vocational components led to a better quality of life and a higher rate of return to work than just usual care. In Germany, oncological rehabilitation is an integral part of the healthcare system and part of a modern cancer treatment that immediately follows operation, medical treatment or radiotherapy. Furthermore, it can be used if functional disabilities still remain years after cancer treatment. This review describes the German history and legal basis of oncological rehabilitation as well as the contents of and the evidence for this comprehensive and interdisciplinary treatment.

Does a Train-the-Trainer Approach for Enhancing Healthcare Professionals’ Skills in Patient Education during Inpatient Medical Rehabilitation Improve Patient Outcomes?

“…The main goals of medical rehabilitation programs are improvement of the patient's medical condition, development of coping strategies and reintegration into social and working life with the ICF [20] serving as a conceptual basis. The resulting complexity of rehabilitation programs equally applies to the psychosomatic and cancer rehabilitation settings [23,24]. Although it has been indicated that staff education may impact patient outcomes (train-the-trainer in acute clinical settings) [16], we were not able to detect effects in multifactorial inpatient rehabilitation.…”

“…Oncological rehabilitation on average lasts 3 weeks and is mostly initiated after completion of primary treatment. It comprises medical treatment, physical training, psychological support/therapy, and social counseling [23]. Psychosomatic rehabilitation on average lasts 5 weeks involving multilevel psychosomatic assessment and multimodal treatment.…”

The Impact of Stereotactic or Whole Brain Radiotherapy on Neurocognitive Functioning in Adult Patients with Brain Metastases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…A valuable line of research is to explore possible additional therapeutic strategies that could reduce treatment toxicity. As the mechanisms leading to radiation-induced cognitive impairment are multifactorial, several strategies, each addressing different mechanisms, have been proposed to potentially reduce the neurocognitive toxicity of radiation [69, 70]. For example, avoiding high-dose radiation on hippocampi and adding synthetic metallotexaphyrin motexafin gadolinium or memantine to WBRT have shown encouraging but mixed results [50, 51, 71-76].…”

Bioelectrical Impedance Vector Pattern and Biomarkers of Physical Functioning of Prostate Cancer Survivors in Rehabilitation

“…Beside coping with the disease, the treatment of disease- and therapy-associated functional limitations and psychological consequences as well as the improvement of reduced physical functioning and health-related quality of life are important rehabilitation goals. 11 …”