[Rehabilitation of lung cancer patients]

In the industrial world incidence and prevalence of lung cancer are increasing. At the same time new drugs and new therapies can improve cure rates, prolong survival and procure better quality of life. Nowadays, oncology provides multimodal therapies which may cause psychological and physical stress in the often multimorbid patients. Furthermore, the tumour itself may cause pain and bring about special nutritional and coping problems. Patients may face fear and depression, nicotine withdrawal, socioeconomic problems and the risk of permanent disability. The sequelae of multimodal therapies can vary according to the chosen procedure such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and hormone or immune treatment. After the end of treatment, rehabilitation needs to address the never-ending fear of disease relapse, dyspnoea and suffocation feelings as well as the psychological problems associated with lung cancer. At the initiation of rehabilitation, physical performance is usually limited by the underlying disease as well as the different therapeutic modalities. In Germany, rehabilitation is mainly carried out as in-patient rehabilitation in specialised oncological or pneumological rehabilitation centres. The analysis of published data shows that in-patient rehabilitation has not been evaluated sufficiently for its efficiency so far. This also applies to out-patient rehabilitation, which is largely unavailable in Germany. Oncologists, pneumologists and patient groups agree that rehabilitation should be offered or even strongly recommended to all lung cancer patients.