Exploring the Impact of Physical Therapy on Patient Outcomes Across the Cancer Care Continuum: A Narrative Review

Cancer and its treatments frequently lead to functional impairments, physical limitations, and reduced quality of life (QOL), posing significant challenges for patients across the cancer care continuum. Physical therapy (PT) is a critical intervention to mitigate these effects, from diagnosis through survivorship and palliative care. This narrative review synthesizes evidence on PT's role in improving functional capacity, managing treatment-related side effects, and enhancing overall well-being in cancer patients and survivors. A comprehensive literature search was conducted on PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar using specific keywords and Boolean operators to identify peer-reviewed studies on PT interventions across all cancer care phases. Findings highlight that structured PT interventions, including prehabilitation, exercise programs, and specialized techniques like complete decongestive therapy, significantly reduce pain, fatigue, lymphedema, and deconditioning while improving mobility and QOL. For example, prehabilitation enhanced surgical outcomes in functional capacity, and PT during treatment reduced cancer-related fatigue. The review also underscores PT's psychosocial benefits, such as reduced anxiety and depression, and its cost-effectiveness in long-term cancer rehabilitation. However, challenges like inconsistent integration, limited access, and lack of standardized referral pathways persist. Multidisciplinary collaboration and early PT integration are essential to optimize outcomes. This review advocates for evidence-based PT strategies to enhance patient outcomes and QOL, emphasizing the need for further research to address implementation barriers and standardize protocols.