Prehab4Cancer

Prehab4Cancer is the first UK integrated care service delivered prehabilitation and recovery programme for cancer patients, via a partnership between the GM Cancer alliance and GM Active.

The programme facilitates cancer patients to engage in exercise, nutrition, and wellbeing assessments and interventions prior to, during and after treatment.

Prehab4Cancer is designed to empower patients to take an active role in their cancer care. It prepares patients for the treatments and surgeries and aims to provide positive outcomes for patients during recovery and beyond. The programme is offered to any person who meets eligibility criteria and who is registered to a GP within the Greater Manchester localities.

Evidence shows that actively improving your physical and mental health can help you recover more quickly from surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and reduce the chance of further problems during and after your treatment, as well as many other benefits.

GM Active is the programmes delivery agent and our assets are instrumental to the successful delivery of this large-scale NHS prehabilitation and rehabilitation programme. With state-of-the-art equipment, people can access sites at any time, close to their own homes within local communities. Through GM Active’s passionate and dedicated workforce, we have recruited a highly skilled team to deliver the programme with the support of local exercise professionals, trained in providing exercise and healthy lifestyle interventions for people with complex co-morbidities and health needs.

This unique and innovative partnership between GM Active and the GM Cancer alliance is giving participants the best opportunity for good quality outcomes and long-term survival and the programme has been consistently identified as a priority in addressing the requirements of the NHS Long Term Plan.

Visit Prehab4Cancer’s website

Since inception in 2019, P4C has supported over 2000 people in preparing for the physiological challenges of cancer treatments.  Following an independent evaluation report the headline findings are as follows:

• Patients are optimised prior to surgery and have long-lasting health benefits following post-operative rehabilitation. This reduces demands on healthcare services throughout the cancer pathway.
• Quality of life and physical activity improvements indicate long-term behaviour change and health improvement, with patients taking control of their care.
• Improvements are seen in both ward and critical care bed day usage resulting in improved elective care capacity and effective use of resources. Additional positive impacts on 30 and 90-day readmission and emergency department admissions have been observed.
• Efficiency improvements to pathways are visible which support delivery of elective care and cancer recovery plans, and achievement of cancer performance standards.
• Evidence that supports improved survival in patients who complete Prehab.