Pharmacologic Treatment of Cancer Pain

Abstract

Pain from cancer is a major health care problem.¹³ Thirty percent of patients with cancer have pain at the time of diagnosis, and 65 to 85 percent have pain when their disease is advanced.^2,46 The impact of cancer pain is magnified by the interaction of pain and its treatments with other common cancer symptoms: fatigue, weakness, dyspnea, nausea, constipation, and impaired cognition.^4,6 Cancer pain can be effectively treated in 85 to 95 percent of patients with an integrated program of systemic, pharmacologic, and anticancer therapy.^7,8 Many of the remaining patients can be helped by the . . .