Cancer Rehabilitation: Meeting the Needs of a Growing Population of Survivors

Cancer is becoming one of the world’s predominant diagnoses. Projections cited by Dr Vishwa Raj, Co-Chair of the ISPRM Cancer Rehabilitation Special Interest Group (SIG), put the number of cases at an estimated 35 million by 2050, with the global cost of cancer care between 2020 and 2050 estimated at USD 25 trillion.

Incidence is rising fastest in countries with low and medium Human Development Index (HDI) scores, where rehabilitation services are often least available. But the increase is not confined to those settings: cases continue to rise in high and very high HDI countries as well.

Alongside that picture sits a more hopeful one. Surgery, radiation oncology and medical oncology, including chemotherapy, are improving in many parts of the world. More people are surviving cancer, and more are living for years or decades after diagnosis.

That change reshapes the question facing health systems. Length of survival is no longer the only measure that matters. For many people living with and beyond cancer, the central questions are about daily life: what they can do, how clearly they can think, whether they can return to work, to their families and to the activities that give their lives meaning.

This is the territory of cancer rehabilitation, and the focus of the ISPRM Cancer Rehabilitation SIG. The group’s work addresses quality of life, cognitive impairment and functional impairment in people living with a cancer diagnosis.

The SIG’s activity extends from advocacy to education. Its advocacy group led the initiative behind World Cancer Rehabilitation Day, marked each year on 6 June. At every ISPRM World Congress, the SIG delivers an annual cancer rehabilitation workshop, offering practical education to physicians working to establish or expand cancer rehabilitation in their own countries.