Prehabilitation strategies in patients with vulvar cancer

Vulvar cancer, a relatively rare gynecologic oncology condition, remains a pressing issue given its late diagnosis and the significant decline in quality of life following surgery and chemoradiation. A promising approach to improving the quality of medical care for patients with vulvar cancer is the implementation of prehabilitation and rehabilitation programs. Prehabilitation is a set of measures aimed at improving the patients’ physical function and mental state to mitigate the severity of deconditioning, improve treatment outcomes, and enhance their quality of life. Studies conducted to date show that multimodal prehabilitation programs have a positive effect on patients’ functional capacity and both short- and long-term treatment outcomes. The introduction of prehabilitation programs into clinical practice may be an important, undervalued resource for improving the quality of medical care for patients with gynecologic oncology. This review, based on evidence-based medicine, presents current approaches to prehabilitation for patients with vulvar cancer. Particular attention is paid to studies that are currently underway, as their results may advance our understanding of the role of prehabilitation in improving outcomes in gynecologic oncology in real-world clinical practice.

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