Preoperative and postoperative pulmonary rehabilitation in lung cancer patients.

The benefits derived from comprehensive PR, when applied to patients who have lung cancer, should have significant impact on both survival and health status. Because PR is known to improve exercise capacity, it is reasonable to expect that this treatment modality may provide more patients with a potential cure. In addition, improvement in symptoms and quality of life can prove critically important when long-term survival is not an outcome that can be impacted on. Studies thus far support the value of this treatment modality in the global approach to patients who have lung cancer. Future well-designed clinical trials will need to corroborate these findings. We look forward to improving lung cancer outcomes with the widespread use of pulmonary rehabilitation.