title: Pain management in head and neck cancer patients undergoing chemo-radiotherapy: Clinical practical recommendations.
abstract: Pain in head and neck cancer represents a major issue, before, during and after the oncological treatments. The most frequent cause of pain is chemo/radiation related oral mucositis, which involves 80% of the patients and worsens their quality of life inhibiting speaking, eating, drinking or swallowing and sometimes reducing the treatment compliance, the maximum dose intensity and thus the potential efficacy of treatment. Nevertheless pain is still often under estimated and undertreated. An Italian multidisciplinary group of head and neck cancer specialists met with the aim of reaching a consensus on pain management in this setting. The Delphi Appropriateness method was used for the consensus. External expert reviewers evaluated the final statements. The paper contains 30 consensus-reached statements about pain management in HNC patients and offers a review of recent literature in these topics.
authors.affiliation: Head and Neck Medical Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: aurora.mirabile@gmail.com.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirabile
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Azienda Ospedaliera Citta' Della Salute E Della Scienza Di Torino, Italy. Electronic address: airoldim@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Airoldi
authors.affiliation: Supportive Care in Cancer Unit, Fondazione IRCCS, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: carla.ripamonti@istitutotumori.mi.it.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ripamonti
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology of Trento, Italy. Electronic address: andrea.bolner@apss.tn.it.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bolner
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. Electronic address: barbara.murphy@vanderbilt.edu.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Radiation Oncology Department, AO. S. Croce e Carle, Cuneo, Italy. Electronic address: elviorussi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Russi
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Unit, Ospedale U. Parini, Viale Ginevra 3, 11100 Aosta, Italy. Electronic address: gnumico@ausl.vda.it.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Numico
authors.affiliation: Head and Neck Medical Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: lisa.licitra@istitutotumori.mi.it.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Licitra
authors.affiliation: Head and Neck Medical Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: paolo.bossi@istitutotumori.mi.it.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bossi
mesh_terms: D059248:Chemoradiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D010146:Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D059408:Pain Management / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011788:Quality of Life; D013280:Stomatitis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy
keywords: Chemotherapy; Head and neck cancer; Pain; Radiotherapy