Baladaniya Maheshkumar, Baldania Shraddha
Department of Physical Therapy, Neighborhood Physical Therapy PC, New York, USA.
Department of Physical Therapy, Enjoy Rehab PT PC, New York, USA.
Cureus. 2025 Jul 1;17(7):e87144. doi: 10.7759/cureus.87144. eCollection 2025 Jul.
Cancer and its treatments frequently lead to functional impairments, physical limitations, and reduced quality of life (QOL), posing significant challenges for patients across the cancer care continuum. Physical therapy (PT) is a critical intervention to mitigate these effects, from diagnosis through survivorship and palliative care. This narrative review synthesizes evidence on PT's role in improving functional capacity, managing treatment-related side effects, and enhancing overall well-being in cancer patients and survivors. A comprehensive literature search was conducted on PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar using specific keywords and Boolean operators to identify peer-reviewed studies on PT interventions across all cancer care phases. Findings highlight that structured PT interventions, including prehabilitation, exercise programs, and specialized techniques like complete decongestive therapy, significantly reduce pain, fatigue, lymphedema, and deconditioning while improving mobility and QOL. For example, prehabilitation enhanced surgical outcomes in functional capacity, and PT during treatment reduced cancer-related fatigue. The review also underscores PT's psychosocial benefits, such as reduced anxiety and depression, and its cost-effectiveness in long-term cancer rehabilitation. However, challenges like inconsistent integration, limited access, and lack of standardized referral pathways persist. Multidisciplinary collaboration and early PT integration are essential to optimize outcomes. This review advocates for evidence-based PT strategies to enhance patient outcomes and QOL, emphasizing the need for further research to address implementation barriers and standardize protocols.
癌症及其治疗常常导致功能障碍、身体受限和生活质量（QOL）下降，给癌症全程护理中的患者带来重大挑战。物理治疗（PT）是一种关键干预措施，可减轻这些影响，涵盖从诊断到生存及姑息治疗的各个阶段。本叙述性综述综合了有关物理治疗在改善癌症患者及幸存者功能能力、管理治疗相关副作用以及提升整体幸福感方面作用的证据。使用特定关键词和布尔运算符在PubMed、ScienceDirect和谷歌学术上进行了全面的文献检索，以识别关于物理治疗干预在所有癌症护理阶段的同行评审研究。研究结果表明，结构化的物理治疗干预，包括术前康复、运动计划以及如完全引流疗法等专门技术，可显著减轻疼痛、疲劳、淋巴水肿和身体机能下降，同时改善活动能力和生活质量。例如，术前康复提高了手术在功能能力方面的效果，治疗期间的物理治疗减轻了与癌症相关的疲劳。该综述还强调了物理治疗的心理社会益处，如减轻焦虑和抑郁，以及其在长期癌症康复中的成本效益。然而，诸如整合不一致、获取机会有限以及缺乏标准化转诊途径等挑战依然存在。多学科协作和早期物理治疗整合对于优化结果至关重要。本综述倡导采用基于证据的物理治疗策略来改善患者预后和生活质量，强调需要进一步研究以解决实施障碍并规范方案。
