title: Mild, moderate, or severe pain categorized by patients with cancer with bone metastases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine how patients categorize their pain with the two commonly employed scales.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with bone metastases referred to an outpatient palliative radiotherapy clinic were asked to rate their current pain on a numerical scale of 0-10 (0 = no pain, 10 = worst pain possible) and a categorized scale: none, mild, moderate and severe.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred and seventeen patients were enrolled in the study. The median age was 66 years and median Karnofsky Performance Score was 70. The most common primary cancer sites were lung, prostate and breast. Based on patient-evaluated symptoms, 60% of patients who categorized pain as mild assigned it a 3 (24%) or 4 (36%), 63% who categorized pain as moderate assigned it a 5 (16.9%), 6 (19.1%) or 7 (27%) and 80% who categorized pain as severe assigned it an 8 (28.2%), 9 (12.6%) or 10 (39.8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our patients scored pain as mild if pain was < or =4, moderate if pain was 5-7 and severe if pain was > or =8.
authors.affiliation: Rapid Response Therapy Program, Toronto Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. edward.chow@sunnybrook.ca
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Meagan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doyle
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hruby
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sinclair
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: Cyril
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Danjoux
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000556:secondary; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017567:Karnofsky Performance Status; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000145:classification*; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D010166:Palliative Care; D012720:Severity of Illness Index