Preparing for bowel cancer treatment (prehabilitation)

Your doctor and nurse might talk to you about preparing for your treatment for bowel cancer. This is sometimes called prehabilitation. It helps you to improve your fitness, health and well-being before treatment. This can help you to recover more quickly. It might also help your treatment to work better.

Bowel cancer is a general term for cancer that starts in either the colon or rectum. It might sometimes be called colorectal cancer.

Prehabilitation is often suggested if you are having surgery. But if you are having treatment for rectal cancer it is also useful if you are starting radiotherapy or chemotherapy, or having both treatments together (called chemoradiation).

Even if your treatment is starting a few weeks after your diagnosis, improving your general health can make a difference. It can help you to feel you are doing something by being involved in your cancer treatment.

Some hospitals have specific programmes for prehabilitation to support you. You might see different health professionals, such as a clinical nurse specialist, a dietitian, a physiotherapist or counsellor, or a psychologist. This is called a multidisciplinary team (MDT).

Enhanced recovery programmes are similar to prehabilitation. They also aim to reduce the time you spend in hospital after surgery and speed up your recovery.

As part of an enhanced recovery programme, you will be given information about diet and exercise before surgery. You may also be given nutritional drinks to take before surgery.

Try to stop smoking as soon as you can before treatment. Even stopping 2 to 3 weeks before surgery, and not smoking afterwards, reduces your risk of complications. Your wounds are more likely to heal more quickly and your stay in hospital may be shorter.

Stopping smoking  increases the chances of radiotherapy and chemoradiation working better. It also means side effects are likely to be less severe.

It can be very difficult to stop smoking, especially when you are stressed.

The NHS has a lot of information and support to help you give up smoking. Look on the NHS website for the country where you live.

We also have information about stopping smoking.

You may be asked to do exercises to improve your heart health and make your muscles stronger. Being fitter may help you to cope with treatment side effects and reduce the risk of complications after surgery. You can even improve your fitness in a few weeks by doing regular exercise, such as walking. 

We have more information about physical activity and cancer.