Prehabilitation resources for healthcare professionals

Prehabilitation principles and guidance

We have developed our principles and guidance for prehabilitation with the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the National Institute for Health Research Cancer, and Nutrition Collaboration.

The principles and guidance will help you to:

  • advance cancer care provision
  • include prehabilitation in the cancer pathway.
  • inform service provision and development
  • inform and support a change policy.

Prehabilitation videos for to support people with cancer

Macmillan have collaborated with Bristol Myers Squibb and people living with cancer to produce six videos about prehabilitation.

These include:

  • What is prehabilitation?
  • Physical activity
  • Eating well
  • Mental wellbeing
  • Alcohol moderation
  • Stopping smoking

Prehabilitation helps people living with cancer prepare themselves for treatment. It can include areas like physical activity, healthy eating, mental health, reducing alcohol intake and stopping smoking.

View the prehabilitation videos.

Prehabilitation summit videos

Following the first joint NHSE and Macmillan Prehabilitation Summit, we are delighted to share the videos of the sessions from the day. We hope you are able to use these to refresh your knowledge and raise awareness with colleagues about the importance of prehabilitation and the progress being made in this area. 

 

 Watch: Welcome and Summit Introduction 

 

Other videos from the summit

Prehabilitation podcasts

We spoke to professionals and people living with cancer to understand their experiences of prehabilitation. You can hear what they told us in our series of podcasts.

  • Podcasts by people living with cancer

    We spoke to Della, Clive and Jenny, who are living with cancer. In the podcasts below, they share their thoughts and experiences about prehabilitation.

  • Podcasts by professionals

    We spoke to leading cancer experts about the role of prehabilitation in cancer care. In the podcasts below, they describe the benefits of exercise, nutrition, psychological support and behaviour change. They also give an overview of consensus statements and share their vision for the future of prehabilitation for people with cancer.

  • Webinars

    Macmillan Cancer Support in collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) hosted a recent webinar focused on improving the understanding and knowledge of prehabilitation for healthcare professionals to support people living with cancer. The session included Professor Sandy Jack providing an update on the latest research in prehabilitation and our own Lead Nursing and AHP Adviser June Davis discussing the role of the Macmillan/BMS partnership.

Physical activity resources

We want everyone living with cancer to get the support and inspiration they need to be physically active, in a way that's right for them.

Physical activity can help people living with cancer:

  • manage their symptoms
  • improve their quality of life and clinical outcomes
  • prevent treatment side effects
  • reduce the risk of recurrence.

You can learn more about these benefits in our physical activity guidance. We have separate physical activity guidance for patients with metastatic bone disease.

We also have a service implementation guide and sports toolkit to help professionals develop or signpost patients to a physical activity service.

Please find below links to additional information around physical activity and exercise developed by the South East London Cancer Alliance for patients and those working with people with cancer.

Join online specialist group

The Q Perioperative Care-Prehabilitation Special Interest Group (SIG) is hosted by Macmillan Cancer Support and the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC), a partnership between health charities, professional organisations, patient organisations and several leading Royal Colleges.

The specialist Interest group is one of a large number of different specialist interest groups that can be accessed on the Health Foundation website.

Our initial focus for this SIG will be on prehabilitation and rehabilitation, specifically supporting and optimising peoples’ physical and mental health in advance of, during and beyond treatment for cancer and other long-term conditions. Anyone can join the group for free, find out more about the key goals and how to join.

10 top tips for primary care

We've created our 10 top tips series to help primary care professionals support patients at every stage of the cancer pathway. The tips are designed to showcase best practice and offer practical advice for your role.

We have tips for prehabilitation, which include:

View all top tips

Innovation in cancer care resources

We invest in programmes and services to help professionals adopt new and innovative ways to deliver cancer care in the UK. Working in communities and with the NHS, we fund pilots to improve experiences and outcomes for people with cancer. With this knowledge, we have created tools and resources to help you deliver:

Find out more about our work

Clinical updates for healthcare professionals

Stay up to date with the latest developments in cancer care, with expert news, opinion and analysis. You'll also find blogs about our professionals and the fantastic work they do.

Read our latest blogs for healthcare professionals.

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Research and evidence

We're at the forefront of understanding the needs and experiences of people living with cancer. Get the evidence and insight you need to develop or deliver best practice in cancer care, delivered by our team of experts. 


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