Can home workouts before colon cancer surgery help? They boost fitness before the operation, but not after.

If you're facing colon cancer surgery, you might wonder if getting stronger beforehand can help you bounce back faster. A new review looked at home-based 'prehabilitation' programs—these combine exercise, nutrition, and mental health support to prepare patients for surgery. The main finding is clear: these programs did help people walk farther in a six-minute test right before their operation. That's a good sign for being physically ready for the stress of surgery. However, that boost in fitness didn't stick around. When checked 4-6 weeks and 8 weeks after surgery, patients who did prehab weren't walking significantly farther than those who didn't. The programs also didn't make a measurable difference in several important recovery areas. They didn't lower the rate of complications within 30 days of surgery, reduce trips to the emergency room, or cut down on hospital readmissions. Patients' anxiety and depression scores, measured 8 weeks after surgery, weren't significantly improved either. The review concludes that while getting fitter at home before surgery works, the benefits fade afterward. The authors suggest that to keep those gains, programs might need to be more intense, last longer, or continue after the operation.