Cancer Physiotherapy

Cancer physiotherapy is patient focused and aimed at improving your quality of life as well as your general health, therefore we will always ensure to complete a thorough assessment with you when we will talk through your aims of treatment and come up with a plan together that meets your needs.

Studies now show that an increase in physical activity can improve survival rates in breast cancer, prostate cancer and colo-rectal cancer¹. These cancer groups are the most researched and therefore the benefits may well carry over to other patient groups that so far have been under researched.

Due to the advances in medical treatment, many people are living much longer after a diagnosis of cancer, with the survival rates having doubled in the last 40 years². The attention paid to the side effects experienced by people has been lacking, with Macmillan reporting that 1 in 3 cancer survivors have unmet needs³. In part, this is due to a lack of services offered, but it also seems that many health professionals don’t know whose role it is to address important issues such as how keeping active throughout treatment can reduce side effects. People themselves also don’t always feel comfortable raising these secondary issues, but your quality of life during and after treatment is something that is very valid, and you should be able to discuss anything that effects this with the appropriate professional, whether it be your consultant, nurse or physiotherapist.

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are aggressive treatments that will undoubtedly have effects on other parts of the body, as well as the cancer site, so it is important that through rehabilitation we focus on you as a whole. You are likely to have some specific areas of concern surrounding the area you have had treated, and this is where an in depth assessment can ascertain if physiotherapy will be helpful. A good example of this is pain and movement restriction following treatment for breast cancer, where soft tissue release techniques can be incredibly effective at improving your range of movement and reducing your levels of discomfort.

Pre-habilitation is also something that consultants are starting to favour, particularly in the field of oesophago-gastric cancer, in order to improve cardiovascular fitness before surgery, and reduce post-operative complications.

If this is something that your consultant has discussed with you or you would like to know more about, then please feel free to get in touch.