SynthesisFrontiers in medicine2026
Preoperative exercise-based prehabilitation for reducing postoperative pulmonary complications after lung cancer surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) are common and clinically important adverse outcomes after lung cancer surgery. Preoperative exercise-based prehabilitation may enhance functional reserve before surgery, but its effects on PPCs and related perioperative outcomes remain uncertain. Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis followed the PRISMA 2020 guidelines and was registered with PROSPERO (CRD420251273259). PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and the VIP Database were searched from inception to 25 December 2025. Randomized controlled trials evaluating preoperative exercise-based prehabilitation in adults undergoing lung cancer surgery were included. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane RoB 2 tool, and certainty of evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed using RevMan 5.4.1. Results: A total of 28 reports comprising 29 randomized controlled trials and 2,900 eligible surgical participants were included. Compared with usual perioperative care, preoperative exercise-based prehabilitation significantly reduced the risk of overall PPCs (RR = 0.42, 95% CI 0.33-0.53; I Conclusion: Preoperative exercise-based prehabilitation may reduce PPCs and shorten postoperative hospital stay after lung cancer surgery, but the certainty of evidence ranged from moderate to very low across outcomes. Evidence for functional improvement remains uncertain. Future multicenter trials should standardize prehabilitation protocols, outcome definitions, safety monitoring, and adherence reporting. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD420251273259.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.