New report into the benefits of prehabilitation in cancer care reveals significant potential to alleviate NHS pressures and enhance cancer patient outcomes

• New research conducted by Macmillan Cancer Support, IQVIA, and Bristol Myers Squibb, in collaboration with 11 National Health Service (NHS) Trusts, highlights the powerful impact of prehabilitation programmes in non-surgical cancer settings to improve patient wellbeing, reduce bed stays, and increase the number of patients treated with innovative care.¹
• If these findings were extrapolated across all patients with cancer in England, the average hospital stay could be reduced by 0.12 days per patient, potentially freeing up an estimated 374,845 hospital beds across the NHS.¹
• Findings indicate the potential to reduce cancer backlog and length of cancer waiting times, resulting in a possible 48,057 extra patients with cancer treated in England annually.¹
• The partnership between Macmillan Cancer Support and Bristol Myers Squibb demonstrates how working together across charity, industry, and the NHS can help deliver meaningful improvements in cancer care.

(Uxbridge, Middlesex, Thursday 23 October 2025) — A new report highlights the transformative potential of prehabilitation programmes in addressing critical challenges facing the NHS, particularly in cancer care. The findings from the report reveal how implementing prehabilitation across NHS Trusts in non-surgical cancer settings could not only ease capacity pressures but also improve patient experiences.¹

Prehabilitation is needs-based multi-modal intervention, before and during cancer treatment, to optimise physical, nutritional and psychological status, enhance readiness for and tolerance of treatments and improve recovery and/or quality of life. Prehabilitation involves screening before needs-based assessment, enabling individualised prescription of exercise, nutrition and psychological interventions supported by behaviour change techniques. Prehabilitation is part of a continuum to rehabilitation.¹

Key Findings from the Report Include:

• Improving Patient Experiences and Recovery: Psychological and physical support provided during prehabilitation boosts patient confidence and motivation, encourages healthy behaviour change, and improves recovery outcomes.¹
• Easing Capacity Pressures: Prehabilitation could significantly reduce the number of bed-days required by patients, alleviating strain on NHS resources.¹
• Reducing the Cancer Backlog and Lengthy Cancer Waiting Times: By potentially decreasing the average hospital stay length by 0.12 days per patient with cancer, prehabilitation could enable an additional 48,057 patients with cancer in England to be treated annually.¹

“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.” June Davis, Lead Allied Health Professional and Nursing Advisor at Macmillan Cancer Support

In England, the current target is for 85% of patients to receive a referral to treatment within 62 days of diagnosis,² but recent reports suggest nearly a third of patients do not start treatment within two months of referral.³ Prehabilitation in cancer care has shown great success in surgical settings⁴ but has not been tested in non-surgical ones. For this reason, Macmillan Cancer Support, a UK-based charity, and Bristol Myers Squibb, a leading cancer treatment provider, engaged 11 NHS pilot site Trusts to define these benefits in non-surgical contexts.

If patient-level data collected from 5 NHS pilot site Trusts were applied across all patients with cancer in England, treated by the NHS in 2023/24, it is estimated that hospital stays would decrease by 0.12 days per patient, saving a total of 374,845 hospital bed-days (in England) annually. This equates to £187 million in value based on the standard excess day tariff*.¹

“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.” Lora Chio, Executive Business Unit Director, BMS UK & Ireland.

Building on their ongoing partnership, Macmillan Cancer Support and Bristol Myers Squibb have developed a proof-of-concept workforce forecasting tool with IQVIA to help NHS service providers plan ahead. This tool models how upcoming innovations could affect workforce needs at each stage of the oncology patient journey, offering users valuable insights into how treatment advances might shift the skills mix and inform workforce planning across Trusts. This now paves the way for integrating prehabilitation and other innovative cancer services into NHS non-surgical care pathways, helping to address critical challenges, improve resource utilisation, and deliver better patient outcomes.

Click here to read the full report.

* The additional reimbursement made for patients who, for clinical reasons, remain in hospital beyond their expected length of stay.

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Notes to editors

About the Prehabilitation Report

Sharing the NHS’ commitment to improve cancer services and outcomes, Macmillan Cancer Support and Bristol Myers Squibb have worked in collaboration with 11 NHS Trusts between 2022 and 2024 to review existing wrap around cancer support services, vital to meeting the changing needs of cancer patients accessing innovative treatments. The 11 NHS Trusts include¹:

• Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
• Mount Vernon Cancer Centre
• NHS Grampian
• North Bristol NHS Trust
• Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust
• Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
• Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
• University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
• University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

A Project Evaluation Report has been co-produced by Macmillan Cancer Support, Bristol Myers Squibb and 11 NHS Trusts, to define the role and benefits of prehabilitation in the future of cancer treatment pathways for the NHS. It is one of the first service and quality improvement evaluation projects to do so in non-surgical NHS treatment pathways. A core aim of this project is to help inform the content of the national prehabilitation guidance review that is currently in the process of being updated.
 

About Bristol Myers Squibb: Transforming Patients’ Lives Through Science

At Bristol Myers Squibb, our mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. We are pursuing bold science to define what’s possible for the future of medicine and the patients we serve. For more information, visit us at bms.com/gb and follow us on LinkedIn.
 

About Macmillan Cancer Support

Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the largest British charities and exists to help improve the lives of people affected by cancer - those living with cancer, their families, carers and communities. Macmillan helps anyone affected by cancer navigate through the system to get what they need and acts as a force for change. For more information about Macmillan visit https://www.macmillan.org.uk/.

About IQVIA

IQVIA is a leading global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry. They create intelligent connections across all aspects of healthcare through analytics, transformative technology, big data resources and extensive domain expertise. IQVIA has been responsible for working with the NHS pilot sites to collect and analyse the data from the NHS pilot sites. This data forms a key part of the findings presented in this report. All NHS pilot sites involved in the project have entered into Data Sharing Agreements with IQVIA to ensure all data shared follows data protection standards. IQVIA has also supported in the development of the proof-of-concept workforce forecasting tool. 

References

1. Macmillan Cancer Support. Prehabilitation for people with cancer. Available at: https://www.macmillan.org.uk/dfsmedia/1a6f23537f7f4519bb0cf14c45b2a629/13225-source/prehabilitation-for-people-with-cancer. [Accessed October 2025]

2. NHS England. Cancer. Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/clinically-led-review-nhs-access-standards/cancer/. [Accessed October 2025]

3. NHS England (2025), Cancer Waiting Times, National Time Series Oct 2009 - Aug 2025 with Revisions (XLSX). Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/. [Accessed October 2025]

4. Homerton Healthcare Foundation NHS Foundation Trust. Prehabilitation Service. Available at: https://www.homerton.nhs.uk/prehabilitation. [Accessed October 2025]

October 2025
ONC-GB-2500333