As if the cancer wasn't enough! Understanding and treating the pain that comes with cancer.
In people with cancer, pain often occurs from the malignancy, from procedures done to diagnose, stage, and treat the malignancy, and from the toxicities of therapy used in treating the cancer. Of people with cancer, 75% complain of some sort of pain. Determining whether the pain is from tissue damage or nerve structures will guide therapy. Assessment of the severity of the pain by location, oncological type, as well as psychosocial and environmental factors are necessary to understand and treat the pain that accompanies cancer. Medical interventions include non-opioid analgesics, opioids, and multiple different combinations of medications. Adjuvant medication like anticonvulsants and steroids are being used frequently to help people feel more comfortable.
Caimi
Paolo
P
Family Medicine, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and Department of Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21215, USA.
Cymet
Tyler Childs
TC
D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000503:physiopathology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009619:Nociceptors / Q000502:physiology; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology
D000700:Analgesics; D000927:Anticonvulsants