SynthesisAnnals of surgical oncology2025
Prehabilitation in Frail Patients Undergoing Cancer Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Annals of surgical oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effect of high-intensity interval training on clinical outcomes in lung cancer patients undergoing surgery: a meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of Oral Frailty Index-8 Score on Complications After Major Orthopaedic Surgery: A Single-Center Retrospective Study.Journal of oral rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Preoperative physical exercise training for people scheduled for major abdominal surgery.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Article
- Endourological autologous bypass-ureteroplasty for anastomotic atresia in orthotopic neobladder: a novel surgical approach and case report.The Canadian journal of urology · 2026Article
- Technology-Enabled (P)rehabilitation for Patients Undergoing Cancer Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Cancers · 2026Review
- ASO Author Reflections: The Evolving Evidence of Prehabilitation in Frail Cancer Patients Undergoing Surgery.Annals of surgical oncology · 2025Article
- Clinical Frailty Scale predicts overall survival after colon cancer surgery in people aged 80 years and older: A prospective multicentre observational study.Colorectal disease : the official journal of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland · 2025Observational
- Functional dependence predicts adverse outcomes among geriatric otolaryngology patients better than more complex risk scales: a multivariate analysis of hospitalization risks on elderly group.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Baseline Vulnerabilities in Women with Gynecologic Cancer: A Case for Prehabilitation in Resource-limited Settings.Journal of mid-life healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe evidence of prehabilitation in frail patients with cancer is lacking. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the effectiveness of prehabilitation on postoperative complications, and hospital length of stay (LOS) in this population.
methodsA comprehensive search was performed in MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, CINAHL, AMED, and PsycINFO, encompassing all records from inception to December 2023. The outcomes of interest included postoperative complications and LOS. Risk of bias was assessed using the revised Cochrane risk of bias tool (RoB2) and GRADE was used to determine the quality of evidence. Relative risk (RR) or mean difference (MD) along with its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated by using random-effects meta-analysis.
resultsFive randomised controlled trials (four trials in colorectal or colon cancer), including 466 patients (230 patients undergoing prehabilitation and 236 standard of care controls), were included. Prehabilitation reduced any postoperative complications (RR = 0.82; 95% CI = 0.71-0.95; four trials, N = 465), but no effect was observed for major postoperative complications (RR = 0.89: 95% CI = 0.71-1.11; two trials, N = 226) and LOS (MD = 0.3, 95% CI = -0.68 to 1.28; three trials, N = 349). A single trial (including 57 patients) investigated the effect of exercise-only on a range of postoperative complications, with no significant difference between groups observed.
conclusionsIn our systematic review and meta-analysis, we found that prehabilitation significantly decreased the rate of any postoperative complications in frail patients with cancer undergoing surgery. The role of prehabilitation in improving major postoperative outcomes is unclear owing to the limited amount of evidence.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.