The study “Physical exercise pre-operative domiciliary in lung cancer patients”, presented by Pedro Machado, researcher at ciTechCare, was awarded by the Lung Cancer Study Group with the best oral communication at the 1st Portuguese Congress in Lung Cancer.
The 1st Portuguese Congress in Lung Cancer (10th Lung Cancer Study Group Congress) happened on 20, 21 and 22 October, at Troia Conference Center.
This study also involves Sara Pimenta and Joana Cruz, researchers at ciTechCare in the respiratory physiotherapy area, and is the result of a joint collaboration between the pneumology and thoracic surgery services of Hospital Center of Leiria and Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Coimbra.
The research concluded that the pre-operative physical exercise is a feasible and secure intervention for patients with lung cancer eligible for curative surgery. Besides, it also revealed great improvements in terms of global life quality and muscle strenght after an exercise program, which indicates that this intervention can optimize the preparation of patients who are undergoing a surgical treatment.
Due to these positive results, a multicenter clinical study, is now ongoing, gathering Hospital Center of Leiria, Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Coimbra, District Hospital of Santarém and District Hospital of Figueira da Foz, whose aim is to investigate the efficacy of this intervention, in the recovery, after the lung cancer surgery.