Lai 2017a.

Study characteristics
Methods	Randomised controlled trial Setting: Department of Thoracic Surgery, West China Hospital, China Study duration: 1 week before lung resection until hospital discharge
Participants	60 participants aged ≥ 70 years (mean age: control group: 71.6 (SD 1.9) years; exercise group: 72.5 (SD 3.4) years), with NSCLC, referred for lung resection via VATS or open approach
Interventions	Control (30 participants): conventional preoperative respiratory management, and no formal preoperative exercise training Exercise (30 participants): abdominal breathing training, expiration exercises and aerobic training using the NuStep (NuStep Inc, Ann Arbor, MI, USA)
Outcomes	Postintervention 6MWT Health‐related quality of life Pulmonary function Postoperatively Length of hospital stay Postoperative complications
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Quote: "…randomly allocated into the PR [pulmonary rehabilitation] or control (non‐pulmonary rehabilitation, NPR) group". Comment: insufficient information to permit judgement.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Comment: insufficient information to permit judgement.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Comment: no blinding of participants and personnel.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Quote: "All participants were assessed, and data were recorded by a physiotherapist who was blinded to the grouping and the study purpose".
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Quote: "During the study, four patients in the PR group suspended the training because they could not endure the highly intensive regimen, one perceived a lack of benefit, and one suffered from knee pain. According to the intention‐to‐treat principle, we included those who did not complete the regimen in the final analysis".
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	Comment: protocol registered retrospectively (ChiCTR‐IOR‐16008109). Age inclusion criterion on registration was different (> 60 years) and 2 outcome measures (cardiopulmonary function and blood gas analysis) listed on registration were not reported in published study.
Other bias	Low risk	Comment: study appeared free of other sources of bias.