Keywords

In the past few years, the new effectiveness of treatments targeting neoplastic diseases has resulted in the increased survival of oncology patients faced with two possible options: either to recover from the disease or to long live with it. The rising number of people having suffered from such diseases has opened new scenarios with multiple implications as to the needs related to the improvement of the quality of life, which was previously considered as secondary to the life-or-death possible outcome, but has now made the role of rehabilitation medicine crucial to the care of patients affected by neoplasia [1, 2].

The World Health Organization defines rehabilitation medicine as “a set of interventions aimed at the development of a person to its fullest physical, psychological, social, vocational, and educational potential consistent with their physiological or anatomical impairment, and their environment.” [3]. Therefore, oncology rehabilitation meets the demanding challenge of comprehensively caring for the person as a whole, as an individual with their own complexities [4].

While rehabilitation goals have been traditionally set and classified into prevention, reeducation, replacement, and palliative care, with a main focus on the physical sphere, the need has now risen to consider functional, social, and psychological implications too. The concept of quality of life, now broader than it was conceived in the past, covers physical as well as mental health [5].

In practice, therapists should consequently adjust their rehabilitation projects by adopting a relational approach based on inputs, feedbacks, communication, and willingness to listen in order to understand their patients’ needs at best and enhance their compliance and trust.