Less Than 1%: Why Cancer Patients Are Missing Out on PT Care
On paper, the end of cancer treatment looks like a finish line. There are bell-ringing ceremonies in hospitals, the quiet relief of doctors’ nods, the shared joy of family members who no longer need to sit in waiting rooms. But for many survivors, the real struggle begins after the last infusion drip is gone: the stubborn fatigue, the stiffness that makes bending down for shoes an ordeal, the dizziness that turns a short walk into an obstacle course.
There is an entire profession designed to address this hidden half of survivorship—physical therapy. Yet a recent evaluation of cancer patients enrolled in the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program shows how rarely it is used. Out of more than 14,000 members diagnosed with high-prevalence cancers like breast, prostate, lung, thyroid, and head and neck, fewer than one percent received physical therapy services in 2023 (Pressley, Santiago-Colón, & Barnes, 2025).
The Untapped Ally in Cancer Care
Physical therapy has long been recognized as more than just stretching routines or sports rehab. For oncology patients, it means carefully prescribed therapeutic exercise to rebuild strength, manual therapy to ease scar tissue or stiffness, and neuromuscular re-education to retrain the body after months of decline. Studies repeatedly show that these interventions improve not just mobility, but overall quality of life – helping patients return to work, family roles, and daily routines with dignity intact.
Still, rehabilitation has historically been an afterthought in medicine. During the polio era, physical therapy was viewed as a companion to iron lungs and leg braces rather than a central treatment. Sports injuries, with their visible urgency, helped elevate PT’s status. Cancer care, however, continues to emphasize cure over recovery, leaving survivors to improvise their own path back to strength.
What the Data Reveal
The WTC Health Program offers a unique window into this problem. Created for responders and survivors of the September 11th attacks, it has tracked patient claims for more than a decade. Data from 2011 to 2023 show that PT use gradually increased year by year, except for a dramatic dip in 2020, when pandemic shutdowns disrupted in-person services. Utilization has since rebounded, but remains shockingly low overall.
The most common interventions, when they did occur, were therapeutic exercise, manual therapy, and neuromuscular re-education (Pressley et al., 2025). These are not fringe or experimental services—they are the bread and butter of rehabilitation. And yet the study makes plain that survivors are rarely being referred, or perhaps never even told that PT could help them.
Why the Gap Persists
The reasons for underutilization are not mysterious. Physicians often focus on cancer eradication and monitoring, not rehabilitation. Insurance structures make referrals cumbersome. And culturally, PT is too often framed as optional, something for athletes or post-surgical patients, rather than as essential medicine for anyone whose body has been through trauma.
This reveals a deeper truth about American healthcare: we lionize the fight against disease, but undervalue the long, quieter work of healing. Survivors are told they are “lucky” to be alive, but rarely given the full tools to live well.
What’s Lost When PT Is Ignored
Without physical therapy, many survivors live with preventable disabilities. Fatigue lingers, balance falters, and mobility declines. Some cannot return to work; others require ongoing caregiver support. The result is not only diminished independence but also unnecessary strain on families and the healthcare system.
Imagine a father who survives chemotherapy for prostate cancer but can’t lift his child because his strength never recovered. Or a woman who beats breast cancer but continues to live with arm swelling and restricted motion because no one told her about lymph-drainage techniques in PT. These are not side stories—they are central to survivorship.
A Call to Rethink Survivorship
Physical therapy should be viewed as integral to oncology care, as essential as follow-up scans or bloodwork. The body is not simply a battleground where cancer is fought; it is the vessel that carries survivors into the rest of their lives. Physical therapy is the craft that helps that vessel sail again.
Less than one percent is not a statistic to shrug at—it is a reminder of a vast opportunity for healing that remains largely untapped. For cancer survivors, the finish line should not be survival alone. It should be the restoration of strength, independence, and the quiet joy of everyday living.