Cancer patients or their family members often come to the rehabilitation clinic to ask when is the best time to start rehabilitation? Even some doctors think that radiotherapy and chemotherapy are not over yet, so how can we talk about rehabilitation? Other patients think that only patients whose tumors are not detected in their bodies after treatment are considered to be the target of rehabilitation? What is the meaning of rehabilitation for patients who survive with tumor? Can rehabilitation replace radiotherapy and chemotherapy? Before answering these questions, let’s look at a few cases. Case 1: Ms. Fu, 61 years old, was diagnosed with “right lung adenocarcinoma, right-sided cancerous pleural fluid and mediastinal lymph node metastasis” in May 2009. After two rounds of chemotherapy (Kinzel + Cisplatin), her body was weak and her white blood cells dropped to 2000/mm3. In addition, the gastrointestinal reaction caused by chemotherapy persisted, and her family who brought her to the hospital said anxiously, “She has not been able to eat a full meal for several days. We are so anxious!” The patient attended cancer rehabilitation training and treatment in August 2009, and in less than a week, her appetite improved significantly, and after 2 weeks, she gained 3 pounds. Psychological counseling during rehabilitation improved communication and understanding between the patient and his family, and promoted family harmony. After discharge from the hospital, the patient and family continued to refer to the dietitian’s recipes and methods learned during rehabilitation for home rehabilitation, and the white blood cells recovered to 5,000/mm3. 2 months after interrupting chemotherapy, the patient resumed chemotherapy, and his body’s tolerance taught significantly improved before rehabilitation, and he never interrupted chemotherapy again because of leukopenia or severe gastrointestinal reactions. In the year after recovery, the patient completed more than ten times of multiple regimens of chemotherapy, and the tumor shrank significantly for a time before being switched to targeted drug therapy due to drug resistance. To this day, the patient is still living happily, going on vacation with her partner every once in a while. Her daughter said with emotion, “Fortunately, the rehabilitation helped to save her mother’s life. I really hope our family can live together like this forever!” Case 2: Ms. Wang, 68 years old, was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2009 and underwent surgery in June, followed by five cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy. Two months after the end of chemotherapy, she developed dizziness and aphasia, and further examination revealed multiple cranial metastases, so she was treated with radiotherapy again. In May 2010, Ms. Wang, accompanied by her lover, attended cancer rehabilitation treatment and training. At the time of admission, the patient was weak, coughing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, unfavorable speech, bitter mouth, dry mouth, fear of cold, and irregular and dry stools. After 2 weeks of rehabilitation treatment, Ms. Wang looked like two different people. The patients who attended the same period of rehabilitation were all able to see the transformation of her. She was pushed into the ward in a wheelchair, but became a happy patient, laughing and joking, singing and leaving. Everyone said that Ms. Wang should be awarded the first place in this period of recovery. A month ago I met Ms. Wang’s lover at the clinic and he said, “Old Wang keeps exercising every day, which was impossible before. Because she can’t hear, she is very dedicated to qigong practice! And through the treatment, her partner’s health is getting better and better, and the metastatic tumor in her skull is gone, and she has become much more cheerful than before!” For a late-stage lung cancer patient, such a healing effect is very gratifying. Case 3, Ms. Zhu, 62 years old, was diagnosed with stage IV malignant lymphoma in June 2011. After completing 4 stages of chemotherapy, the efficacy of which was already delicate and fearful of chemotherapy, showed that the change of the enlarged lymph nodes in the abdominal cavity was not obvious, and Ms. Zhu’s white blood cells had dropped to less than 3,000/mm3, and she had no energy at all. In September 2011, Ms. Zhu participated in cancer rehabilitation and training, and her greatest achievement after 3 weeks was that her mental state improved greatly, her strength recovered, her face turned from pale to rosy, her white blood cells recovered to about 3,500/mm3, and her old cervical spine problems improved with acupuncture treatment during the rehabilitation period. The colleague who came to visit her jokingly said, “You don’t look like a patient at all, go, go back to work with me!” Later, because Ms. Zhu’s white blood cells had not returned to normal and her lesions were smaller than before, coupled with her personal reluctance to undergo chemotherapy, the doctor suggested that she first review her condition regularly and then consider changing her program after chemotherapy if her condition changed. four months passed, Ms. Zhu felt better and better, and she actively suggested and helped other patients to undergo a combination of Chinese and Western medical treatment. She said, “I know the doctor told me that chemotherapy is for my own good, but I feel my own health condition the most, I just can’t hold on. Cancer recovery has given me hope and taught me many methods. Chinese medicine has helped me to consolidate the efficacy of my treatment during the period when I am not undergoing chemotherapy. I am not afraid at all, I believe I will get well and I will be able to go back to work!” From the above three cases, it is easy to see that all three patients are not patients after their tumors have been cured radically, and all join the cancer recovery in a state with tumors. There are Ms. Fu and Ms. Zhu who both interrupted chemotherapy due to chemotherapy side effects. Ms. Fu recovered after rehabilitation, continued chemotherapy and benefited from the continued treatment, and is now living with tumor and has good quality of life; Ms. Zhu continued Chinese medicine treatment due to stable efficacy and improved health condition, and regularly reviewed and monitored tumor changes and chose the opportunity to have chemotherapy again. Ms. Wang, who suffered from brain metastasis due to lung cancer, not only learned rehabilitation methods but also developed good exercise habits. Through radiotherapy, pharmacotherapy, food therapy and exercise, her body became strong, the lesions disappeared completely, and her personality became cheerful. Almost all patients who have participated in rehabilitation, including these three patients, have this experience: “Rehabilitation is so important to us! If only we had learned about rehabilitation earlier and adopted rehabilitation methods earlier!” Many patients with milder disease and better physical condition also start to seek other treatment methods, such as traditional Chinese medicine, qigong, etc., after the end of western medical treatment. These patients are the ones who really enter the recovery period, and the proper adoption of comprehensive rehabilitation medical treatment is very beneficial to consolidate the efficacy of treatment and is a sure way to cure cancer. In fact, cancer rehabilitation medical treatment is suitable for cancer patients at all stages of treatment, and can promote post-operative recovery, improve the effectiveness and completion rate of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, reduce side effects, consolidate the efficacy of treatment, etc. It can also help patients deal with psychological and nutritional problems faced at various stages in a timely manner. It should be said that the earlier cancer recovery starts, the sooner patients will benefit. Why do you say so? Different problems exist in different stages of cancer development and treatment, for example, psychological problems, from initial avoidance, aggression, complaints and fear to gradual acceptance and confrontation, require professional help and, if necessary, effective intervention with psychotropic drugs (such as severe anxiety, insomnia, depression, etc.) to help patients smoothly pass through various psychological stages. Psychological counseling is not only needed by patients, but also by their families. Our survey shows that nearly 40% of patients are found to have different degrees of anxiety or depression through psychological assessment scales, and the incidence of psychologists subjectively judging cancer patients’ poor psychological state through interviews with patients is much higher than the rate found through scale screening, which means it is easier to perceive and obtain cancer patients’ real psychological and emotional state through confessions and conversations. At the same time, we found that the rate of anxiety or depression among family members was higher than that of patients by the psychometric scale, reaching nearly 60%. Interestingly, despite the high percentage of psychological problems among cancer patients, as many as 65% of patients thought they did not need psychological counseling, while 71% of patients’ family members thought both they and the patients needed counselors’ help very much. This phenomenon reflects that cancer patients may face psychological problems without identification, intentional concealment or avoidance. Without effective help from professionals, these potential psychological problems will stay with patients for a long time, or even develop into some serious psychological problems, which will not only be difficult to deal with at that time, but also very detrimental to the recovery of cancer patients. In addition, the nutritional problems in different stages are also of concern to cancer patients, such as what to eat after surgery for deficiency of qi and blood? How to supplement nutrition during radiotherapy for loss of appetite or nausea and vomiting? What should patients with diarrhea eat? What diet should patients with high uric acid pay attention to? What are the bad eating habits that should be eliminated? All of these require individualized guidance from the dietitian. Some patients did not have the habit of exercising in the past, but when they saw other patients playing taijiquan, they followed them, and when they saw others practicing qigong, they followed them, but as a result, they could not persist. Ideology affects behavior, without a deep understanding of the relationship between exercise therapy and health, it is difficult to form exercise into a habit. Similarly, without the guidance of exercise professionals with a medical background, it is difficult to grasp the essentials of exercise at different stages, such as when to start exercising after surgery? What method should be used? How long is appropriate for each session? For example, how to improve sleep and gastrointestinal symptoms through exercise? What should I pay attention to when exercising in combination with chronic diseases such as diabetes or hypertension, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease? Is it safe to exercise outdoors during chemotherapy? I am afraid that it is difficult to get scientific and appropriate guidance from others in the park for these questions. Therefore, exercise education and fitness training during rehabilitation is very necessary. All in all, cancer rehabilitation is a clinical discipline using integrated methods of Chinese medicine, psychology, nutrition, sports medicine and education, which should be used throughout the cancer treatment. Clinical Oncology published by People’s Health Publishing House has a clear recommendation when talking about cancer rehabilitation: “Cancer rehabilitation should start from the moment cancer is diagnosed and run through the whole course of the disease.” It is an indispensable part of standardized and comprehensive cancer treatment, complementary to other treatment methods and irreplaceable to each other. It addresses not only the symptoms related to the disease, but also all aspects of the cancer patient’s life, and truly puts the issue of human quality of life in the first place from the core of “people-oriented”. Therefore, we say that cancer patients should start rehabilitation medical treatment from the time they are diagnosed, so that they can smoothly pass through the preoperative preparation period, postoperative recovery period, chemotherapy period, radiotherapy period and other treatment stages; after the treatment is over, cancer rehabilitation medical treatment is the main focus, combined with regular review, and individualized rehabilitation plans are made by cancer rehabilitation medical experts according to specific conditions, which are not only for cancer patients but also for the whole cancer patients’ families. The program is tailored to the needs of not only the cancer patient but also the entire family. A medical treatment without rehabilitation is not a perfect medical treatment. A successful cancer patient must be a wise person who values recovery and strives to practice it. Start writing recovery into your cancer plan now!