Can we "prehabilitate" pancreatic cancer patients prior to surgery? A critical appraisal of the literature

Background: Enhancing a patient's functional capacity to withstand the surgical stress by means of multimodal (combined exercise, nutrition and psychological interventions) prehabilitation may potentially lead to improved outcomes in pancreatic cancer surgery.

Methodology: A systematic review was undertaken searching PubMed, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library databases, exploring the impact of prehabilitation in pancreatic surgery. Outcomes of interest were adherence to the prehabilitation, functional capacity, overall complications and post-operative length of stay. Pooled analysis was performed using a random-effects model.

Results: Twelve studies comprising of 1497 patients were included in the review. Most of the studies seem to lack a multimodal approach. Less than 50 % of the studies reported adherence, which ranged between 27 and 100 %. Functional capacity, in terms of 6-min walk test, showed improvement with prehabilitation. Among the post-operative outcomes, prehabilitation was associated with significant improvement in pulmonary complications (2.4 % versus 6.7 %, RR 0.36, CI 0.17-0.74, p = 0.01, I² = 28%). Prehabilitation was not effective in terms of length of stay or readmission rates.

Conclusions: Larger studies with multimodal prehabilitation approaches may demonstrate more consistent and clinically meaningful benefits, which would lead to a firm appreciation of its role the management of pancreatic cancer patients undergoing surgery.