Prehabilitation and Rehabilitation for Patients With Oesophageal Cancer

Prehabilitation and Rehabilitation for Patients With Oesophageal Cancer

Patients with oesophageal cancer selected for oncological and surgical treatment with curative intent are offered supervised physiotherapy and home-based training before and after surgery.

Patients with loco-regional oesophageal cancer who will receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery and sometimes adjuvant chemotherapy are eligible to be enrolled in the trial. Study treatment is supervised group training twice weekly and home-based training three times weekly during neoadjuvant treatment and after surgery.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Histopathologically confirmed squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma or adenosquamous carcinoma in the oesophagus or cardia (Siewert I or II), cT1 N+ or cT2-4a any N, M0, according to the 8th version of the AJCC TNM classification.
• Assessed at a multidisciplinary conference to be suitable for curatively intended oncological and surgical treatment.
• Age > 18 years.
• Performance status ECOG 0-2.
• Patient has provided written informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Previous radiotherapy in the thorax (except for tangential field radiotherapy for breast cancer).
• Inability to understand written and spoken instructions and to comply with protocol requirements.