[Pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with lung cancer]

The paper presents current news on the possibilities of conducting rehabilitation of patients suffering from lung cancer. It presents the principles of conducting and contraindications for pulmonary rehabilitation for these patients according to current guidelines of American College of Sport Medicine. The methods of measuring exercise capacity for patients with lung cancer have been discussed. The value of ergospirometrial test with maximum oxygen consumption (VO(2peak)) in predicting not only the survival of patients with lung cancer, but also assessing the possibility of pulmonary rehabilitation programs has been highlighted. In the part devoted to physical training for patients before a surgery for lung cancer, current research results have been presented- these show that even a short, high intensity program of pulmonary rehabilitation for patients with lung cancer before surgery is effective and increases the safety of both- the safety of the surgery and extends survival time after operation for lung cancer. The paper describes difficulties in the implementation of rehabilitation programs after surgery conducted on patients with lung cancer resulting from dysfunction of cardiovascular and muscle atrophy - both skeletal and respiratory. The issue of patients with inoperable lung cancer treated with chemotherapy has been discussed so far in only one paper published in 2007. The results shown in it have been discussed as well. The authors demonstrated a significant improvement in the efficiency of respiratory-circulatory system assessed by six-minute walk test, although the rehabilitation program was graduated by small number of patients (44%). It was noted that patients with inoperable lung cancer now account for a large group of patients who use this type of medical intervention and can significantly improve the quality of life and the method shows positive impact on the survival rate.