Li X, et al. - In this meta-analysis, researchers investigated the impact of preoperative exercise therapy on surgical outcomes in patients with lung cancer and COPD. In addition, they examined the pulmonary function and muscle capacity for their potential links with outcome improvements after exercise. They analyzed 7 studies containing 404 participants and identified lower incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications and shorter length of hospital stay for patients who received preoperative exercise training. This suggests that postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC) could be reduced with preoperative exercise training among lung cancer patients. Muscle capacity was strengthened with rehabilitation exercise but with no improvement in impaired pulmonary function. This emphasizes the possible mechanism of the protocol design.