[The attempts and current status of cancer rehabilitation at Osaka Medical College Hospital].

We introduced an attempt at cancer rehabilitation at Osaka Medical College Hospital. We also reported trends in the clinical department that ordered the cancer rehabilitation, and the days needed to consult the rehabilitation department after hospitalization for 1,028 patients who needed rehabilitation from January to June 2012. The number of rehabilitation orders for cancer patients has increased in comparison with the same period during 2009, and the percentage of cancer rehabilitation orders has also increased, both in total and in each clinical department consulted. In addition, clinical departments that introduced a rehabilitation schedule along with their treatments ordered cancer rehabilitations much earlier than those departments without such a schedule. In future, to start cancer rehabilitation at an earlier stage, we should endeavor to create awareness of the importance of cancer rehabilitation and the introduction of a rehabilitation schedule along with cancer treatments.