Pain and its treatment in patients with cancer in Korea.
Substantial pain is experienced by a lot of patients with cancer, and undertreated pain significantly undermines their quality of life. Despite international and national guidelines on cancer pain management, the practical effectiveness of management is still problematic. We did a prospective cross-sectional survey on pain prevalence, pain intensity, its impact on daily activity, and adequacy of pain management in 823 patients treated by medical oncologists and radiologic oncologists. At the time of the survey, 29.7% of the patients had pain that was moderate or severe. Performance status and tumor extent were significant predictors of pain presence and its intensity. Pain severity and the proportion of the patients whose function is impaired are highly associated. Among the patients with pain, only 37% rated pain relief as satisfactory. Forty-one percent of the patients with pain received inadequate pain management. Physicians did not adjust the analgesic prescription in about 53% of the patients who reported severe pain. These results demonstrate the alarming degree of undertreatment of pain in patients with cancer in Korea, and indicate the need to improve the management of cancer-related pain. Future research should elucidate the factors that impede adequate pain management in order to overcome obstacles to adequate treatment.
Hyun
Myung Soo
MS
Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, 317-1 Dae-Myeong-Dong, Nam-Gu, Daegu 705-710, South Korea.
Lee
Jae Lyun
JL
Lee
Kyung Hee
KH
Shin
Sei One
SO
Kwon
Ki Young
KY
Song
Hong Suk
HS
Kim
Ok Bae
OB
Sohn
Sang Kyun
SK
Lee
Kyu Bo
KB
Rhu
Hun Mo
HM
Park
Gun Wook
GW
Shin
Dong Gun
DG
Lee
Jeong Lim
JL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000700:Analgesics / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D059408:Pain Management; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D000700:Analgesics