Prehabilitation aims to support you in improving your health prior to having surgery or treatment for cancer. Even small improvements in your health can not only reduce the risks of the treatment, but also speed up your recovery and in some cases make it more likely to be successful.
To have been listed for your treatment you will have been seen by a surgeon or oncologist and may have been asked to participate in some form of pre-assessment. This pre-assessment can range from a simple questionnaire, to being asked to take an exercise test with a consultant anaesthetist.
In all of these interactions, we are trying to identify if there is anything we can do to improve the management of your existing medical problems and if we need to alter your medication around the time of the procedure. We are also trying to estimate the risk associated with the procedure and plan your journey through the hospital.
However, there is a limit to what we can do to improve your health. A large amount of your health can only be controlled by you and it is never too late to improve it.
Below is a video by the Royal College of Anaesthetists, which gives a brief summary of some of the most important things you can do, as well as explaining what you can expect around the time of an operation.
While this video focuses on having an operation, improving your health is just as important for other treatments. In addition, the information about planning for your operation can be used to plan for other treatments.
We hope that you may have already thought of some things that you can change before your procedure. To try and help you in doing this, we have some links along the right-hand side of the page that can provide more information and resources.
If you have a specific question or are worried about a particular medical condition, we would encourage you to either ask your consultant or GP for advice.