Cancer means there’s abnormal cell growth in the body that destroys normal healthy cells, directly and negatively affecting the health and function of body parts…and can even cause disability and death.

Some cancer statistics

• United States: cancer affects up to 40% of the population, with more than 1.5 million new cancer cases diagnosed every single year.
• cancer deaths are higher in men than women.
• globally, there’s about 14 million new cancer cases diagnosed each year with 8.2 million cancer-related deaths
• can affect both children and adults
• can affect any body parts including skin, organs, bones, muscles
• most common types of cancer: breast, lung, prostate, colon, bladder, skin, thyroid
• good news: cancer deaths have gone down since 90s with more and more surviving cancer patients

Cancer and its treatments can cause:

• pain
• numbness in feet and hands
• swelling of lymph nodes (lymphedema)
• weakness in the muscles
• joint stiffness
• loss of balance
• difficulty stamding or walking
• general tiredness and fatigue
• bone brittleness
• loss of balance
• unexaplained severe weight loss
• unexplained bleeding
• brain fog
• heart problems
• headaches
• persistent cough

How is cancer diagnosed?

Cancer is diagnosed by a doctor with assessments, blood tests and imaging works.

A physiotherapist can examine a person who has been diagnosed with cancer for physical problems that cause discomfort or difficulty with movement by testing elements of

• strength
• flexibility
• balance
• sensation
• coordination
• endurance and
• ability to walk and get around

The physiotherapists then will create specialized treatment plans to address the specific needs and goals of people affected by cancer.

How a physiotherapist can help patients with cancer?

The physio will work with you to develop a specialized treatment program to address your specific needs and goals such as customized exercise therapy to / with or cancer treatment may have decreased your ability to process oxygen (aerobic capacity), causing fatigue.

• Aerobic capacity. Assess your aerobic capacity and determine the best aerobic activities for you to improve capacity, reduce fatigue, and optimize healing. 
• Bone density.  Certain types of exercise can prevent bone loss and maintain bone strength. We can teach you safe and effective exercises to help steadily build your bone strength.
• Lymphedema and swelling. Certain cancer treatments can result swelling in the arms or legs or other types of swelling. We can use several methods to reduce, control, and prevent lymphedema and swelling, such as specialized gentle massage, special movements and exercises and application of compressive garments such as arm sleeves, gloves, and leg stockings
• ody weight. By creating an exercise and physical activity program tailored just for you, our senior physiotherapists will help you reduce body fat and maintain a healthy body weight, which can improve your strength, stamina and energy levels.
• Mood. It’s a known thing that exercise helps with mood and reduce depression in everyone and this 100% includes cancer patients and cancer survivors. A diagnosis of cancer, and cancer treatment, can be stressful and cause mood changes in anyone. Proper exercise, individualized for each person by our senior physiotherapist, can help to manage and reduce stress.
• Brain fog. Exercise can help improve brain and mental sharpness to eliminate memory loss and brain fog.
• Daily activities. Treatment program will help you reach your goals in the safest, fastest, and most effective way possible.
• Walking. We will help improve your ability to stand, walk and even run using techniques such as strengthening exercises, gait training plus balance activities. If you have nerve damage (neuropathy), your physical therapist may provide bracing and other techniques to make it easier or safer for you to walk. We also may recommend using an assistive device, such as a walker or cane.
• Sports training ability. No matter how active you are, even athletes, if you’re undergoing cancer treatment, we will get you to continue training your sport to a degree, depending on the type of cancer and treatment. We will design safe, challenging, sport-specific training programs to help athletes reduce loss of fitness and strength during cancer treatment.
• Motion. We will choose specific activities and treatments to help restore normal movement in any stiff joints. These might begin with “passive” motions that the we will do for you in the beginning, and progress to active exercises and stretches that you do yourself. We’ll teach you to do these specific exercises at home too.
• Flexibility. Stiffness in the joint and muscles is something that patients may develop because of pain and prolonged bed rest – we will help you to stretch them, and teach you how to stretch them at home.
• Strength. Without strength, it’s not just difficult to move about, but it can be pretty painful too because we need muscles to hold up our joints and bones. We’ll start you on a customisted strengthening program to steadily restore your strength and agility.
• Coordination. We will help you regain your coordination so that it’d be so much easier to get up, about and do stuff effectively

Where To Next?

• Go to Home / Start
• Learn and find out more about your pains (bones, muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, nerves etc) at Pain Conditions & Injuries
• Visit our shop to see products we recommend for pain relief, heating, treatments and more
• Contact us