Rehabilitation for Older Patients with Musculoskeletal Oncologic Disease

A multidisciplinary team is essential in patients with orthopedic oncology pathology, and the rehabilitation process should be placed inside the oncologic treatments and the follow-up check visits. The most frequent malignant bone lesions in the older patients are metastases, myeloma, and chondrosarcoma. Surgical and rehabilitation treatments are similar in patients with metastasis and myeloma, while patients with chondrosarcoma require a different strategy due to the higher chances to heal. The surgical treatment of these patients required a bone resection and reconstruction: in the most of cases, reconstruction is performed with modular prosthesis. The rehabilitation program must aim to shorten recovery time with long-term goals in patients with metastasis and myeloma, while it should get stable long-term results in patients with chondrosarcoma, given that these patients have about 90% of chance to heal.