Cancer Pain Can Be Controlled for Most Patients Using Team Approach

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Reuters Health

Thursday, December 28, 2006

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For most patients with advanced cancer,

pain can be controlled when it is approached by specialists with

different areas of expertise, according to report from Taiwan.

" About 50 percent of all cancer patients and 70 percent of patients

with advanced cancer have pain, " Dr. Wen Ling Peng, of the Koo

Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan, and colleagues

write in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.

The team explains that a multidisciplinary approach to pain has been

in place at their center since 1990 and a special guideline for pain

therapy was developed in 1999. Treatment plans for each patient are

decided by a team, including oncologists, nurses, pharmacists,

anesthesiologists, physical therapists and psychiatrists.

The investigators found in a look-back study involving 772 cancer

patients that 669 of them (87 percent) suffered from pain at some

point. Of the 669 patients with pain, 85 percent had been treated

with " strong " opioids.

The number of patients experiencing pain in the last 6 months of

life increased as they progressed through the end stage of cancer.

However, " Using multidisciplinary pain management, the majority of

these patients had their pain become mild to none, " Peng and

colleagues report. Moreover, only 11 percent experienced more severe

pain in the last week of life.

" We conclude that the application of a multidisciplinary approach to

pain management offers effective pain control for most patients with

advanced cancer, " the team writes.

SOURCE: Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, November 2006.

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