Pain in cancer
- Cancer patients often experience pain that has a significantly negative effect on their daily living.
- This pain may be caused by the disease process itself, but may also be related to the treatment such as chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain, chronic pain following surgery and post-amputation pain.
- In this training article we will discuss the different aspects of cancer-related pain, based on various questions posed by general practitioners and internists.
- Items that are discussed include measurement of pain, opioid therapy, opioid side effects, adjuvant medication, barriers that preclude proper treatment of pain, opioid tolerance and addiction, and interventional therapy.
- Pain treatment in cancer patients requires a multidisciplinary team effort, with a central role for the patient.
Conflict of interest and financial support: potential conflicts of interest have been reported for this article. ICMJE forms provided by the authors are available online along with the full text of this article.