Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Macmillan Cancer Support and 11 NHS Trusts have jointly published a report highlighting the benefits of prehabilitation programmes in cancer care. The findings demonstrate how such interventions can improve patient experience while alleviating capacity pressures.
Prehabilitation is a needs-based, multi-modal intervention that takes place before or during cancer treatment. It focuses on optimising patients’ physical, nutritional and psychological well-being to enhance their readiness for and tolerance of treatment, with the ultimate goal of improving recovery outcomes and quality of life. Programmes typically involve screening and personalised assessments to design tailored support plans for each patient.
“While prehabilitation is increasingly recognised as an important component of high-quality cancer care, the benefits are still not widely understood. Now is the time for stakeholders to join forces to ensure it is implemented effectively and equitably across the health system. By focusing on practical solutions and supporting healthcare providers to embed prehabilitation, we can unlock transformational change for cancer patients nationwide while also reducing downstream costs and inefficiencies, a clear alignment with the national political agenda for the NHS,” commented June Davis, Lead Allied Health Professional and Nursing Advisor at Macmillan Cancer Support.
BMS and Macmillan collaborated with 11 NHS Trusts to assess the impact of prehabilitation in non-surgical cancer care, collecting patient-level data from five pilot sites between 2023 and 2024. The report estimates that, if the results were applied across the NHS, average hospital stays could fall by 0.12 days per patient – equivalent to 374,845 hospital bed-days saved annually in England. This could deliver annual savings of around £187m for the NHS.
“Bristol Myers Squibb is proud to have worked with Macmillan Cancer Support and NHS stakeholders across the country on this important and valuable research, which demonstrates the powerful impact of prehabilitation programmes in non-surgical cancer care. This work is a clear example of how we are directly supporting the NHS in tackling some of its most pressing challenges, freeing up hospital beds and helping more patients access innovative treatments. The findings from this research will be used to shape best practice across the country, ensuring that the benefits of prehabilitation meaningfully reach patients nationwide,” said Lora Chio, Executive Business Unit Director, BMS UK & Ireland.
Following publication of the report, BMS and Macmillan have partnered with IQVIA to develop a proof-of-concept workforce forecasting tool designed to help NHS service providers assess how innovations such as prehabilitation could affect workforce needs throughout the oncology patient pathway. The partners said the tool supports future integration of prehabilitation and other cancer services into NHS non-surgical care pathways, further improving both patient experience and resource utilisation.