The nexus of functional exercise capacity with health-related quality of life in lung cancer: how closely are they related?

Lung cancer is a devasting and common diagnosis worldwide. Approximately 81% of patients present once the cancer has spread beyond the primary site and consequently surgical treatment is often not an option, with chemoradiation, targeted therapy or immunotherapies being most common in stage III to IV disease. Lung cancer has a high disease burden with symptoms such as shortness of breath, cough and fatigue that significantly impact the patient’s activities of daily living. In the last 10 years clinicians and researchers have focused on measuring symptoms and patient reported outcomes, and providing interventions to improve these.