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Query: UMLS:C0596240 (cancer pain)
 3,066 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Long-term analgesia with epidural morphine (EM) is a new tool in the management of intractable cancer pain. Twenty-six out of 160 cancer patients referred to the Pain Division for pain assessment were selected for analgesia with long-term epidural morphine, so aiming to define its place amongst more traditional methods of treatment, such as drugs, nerve-blocks, neurosurgery or radiotherapy. All 26 patients were cases of conventional analgesic failure, with very advanced cancer states. Thirteen patients became absolutely pain free throughout the treatment period: five of them were even allowed home. Another ten patients were satisfied with EM, though some residual pain of neurogenic and visceral type persisted. In three patients, epidural morphine was judged as a complete failure. The 134 other patients could be managed with either of the other above mentioned techniques. The most important selection criterion for patients requiring epidural morphine seemed to be continuous multiple site bilateral pain of deep somatic origin. The response was variable in continuous visceral pain, while neurogenic, cutaneous and intermittent pain due to intestinal obstruction responded only exceptionally. EM was most valuable in terminal situations when systemic opiates failed to give satisfactory analgesia, or in acute transitory situations, while waiting for a response to cancer-orientated therapy. Epidural morphine considerably improved the patients' quality of life, compared with conventional methods tried beforehand. Analgesic methods in cancer are palliative procedures. In terminal or temporary situations, other more invasive methods are not suited. The EM technique is simple, adjustable to advancing pain and has few side-effects, especially when compared with neurolytic and neurosurgical procedures.
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PMID:[Peridural morphine in intractable cancer pains. Means and obstacles]. 403 41

We reported the kind of symptoms and how they could be palliated in terminally ill patients at home based on our experience of about 9 years. Cancer pain, which was the most frequent symptom, appeared in 67 among 126 patients receiving home care, and it could be effectively controlled with morphine; no patient returned to the hospital because of aggravation of pain. Very few patients stayed in the hospital and never returned home due to uncontrollable pain. Home parenteral infusion was done for 63 patients who were unable to eat or drink because of peritonitis carcinomatosa or cancer cachexia. High fever in the tumor mass was controlled by glucocorticoid hormone, and ascites was drained continuously when the patients suffered from abdominal distension. From analysis of the cases in which home care was interrupted or those in which patients were unable to transfer to home care, symptoms that were difficult to palliate at home were nausea caused by bowel obstruction, acute symptoms (bleeding, disturbance of consciousness, and so on), and dyspnea. But if the patients and family are eager for home care and an adequate medical support system is in place, home care may be possible despite these symptoms.
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PMID:[How to palliate the symptoms of terminally ill patients at home]. 898 19

Basic guidelines for cancer pain treatment can be found in many different handbooks published in the last years. Particularly those of the World Health Organisation published in 1986 and revised in 1996, furnish useful indication for cancer pain treatment. The authors therefore focused on resuming the most recent development in this field. In the research regarding alternative routes of administration of opioids in alternative to the oral route, the rectal administration of morphine and methadone and the transdermal route for fentanyl have proved to be efficacious. The subcutaneous route (for morphine) as well as the intravenous, peridural and subaracnoid routes, being known for some time are not taken in consideration in this paper. Various studies suggest that alternative routes are necessary in 53-70% of patients in their last days or months of live. The most frequent causes for the need to stop oral administration are dysphagia, nausea, and uncontrollable vomiting, bowel obstruction, malabsorption, cognitive failure, coma, and pain syndromes requiring anaesthetics which need be administered via the spinal route. Among the drugs, tramadol seems to be effective in the control of moderate pain. Tramadol is a centrally acting analgesic drug; it has an agonist effect on mu 1 receptors of opioids and acts also by inhibiting the re-uptake of noradrenaline and serotonine which activates descending monoaminergic inhibitory pathways. Recent clinical studies revealed that pamidronate has an analgesic effect in pain due to bone metastasis. Pamidronate is part of the biphosphonates, which are active on bone metabolism and are usually being used for the treatment of hypercalcaemia in cancer. The authors also describe briefly the indication of ketamin in association with morphine for the treatment of neuropathic pain.
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PMID:[Treatment of pain in oncology]. 923 25

Most patients with advanced cancer develop diverse symptoms that can limit the efficacy of pain treatment and undermine their quality of life. The present study surveys symptom prevalence, etiology and severity in 593 cancer patients treated by a pain service. Non-opioid analgesics, opioids and adjuvants were administered following the WHO-guidelines for cancer pain relief. Other symptoms were systematically treated by appropriate adjuvant drugs. Pain and symptom severity was measured daily by patient self-assessment; the physicians of the pain service assessed symptom etiology and the severity of confusion, coma and gastrointestinal obstruction at each visit. The patients were treated for an average period of 51 days. Efficacy of pain treatment was good in 70%, satisfactory in 16% and inadequate in 14% of patients. The initial treatment caused a significant reduction in the average number of symptoms from four to three. Prevalence and severity of anorexia, impaired activity, confusion, mood changes, insomnia, constipation, dyspepsia, dyspnoea, coughing, dysphagia and urinary symptoms were significantly reduced, those of sedation, other neuropsychiatric symptoms and dry mouth were significantly increased and those of coma, vertigo, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, intestinal obstruction, erythema, pruritus and sweating remained unchanged. The most frequent symptoms were impaired activity (74% of days), mood changes (22%), constipation (23%), nausea (23%) and dry mouth (20%). The highest severity scores were associated with impaired activity, sedation, coma, intestinal obstruction, dysphagia and urinary symptoms. Of all 23 symptoms, only constipation, erythema and dry mouth were assessed as being most frequently caused by the analgesic regimen. In conclusion, the high prevalence and severity of many symptoms in far advanced cancer can be reduced, if pain treatment is combined with systematic symptom control. Nevertheless, general, neuropsychiatric and gastrointestinal symptoms are experienced during a major part of treatment time and pain relief was inadequate in 14% of patients. Cancer pain management has to be embedded in a frame of palliative care, taking all the possibilities of symptom management into consideration.
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PMID:Symptoms during cancer pain treatment following WHO-guidelines: a longitudinal follow-up study of symptom prevalence, severity and etiology. 1151 84

Adjuvant analgesics are defined as drugs with a primary indication other than pain that have analgesic properties in some painful conditions. The group includes numerous drugs in diverse classes. Although the widespread use of these drugs as first-line agents in chronic nonmalignant pain syndromes suggests that the term "adjuvant" is a misnomer, they usually are combined with a less-than-satisfactory opioid regimen when administered for cancer pain. Some adjuvant analgesics are useful in several painful conditions and are described as multipurpose adjuvant analgesics (antidepressants, corticosteroids, alpha(2)-adrenergic agonists, neuroleptics), whereas others are specific for neuropathic pain (anticonvulsants, local anesthetics, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists), bone pain (calcitonin, bisphosphonates, radiopharmaceuticals), musculoskeletal pain (muscle relaxants), or pain from bowel obstruction (octreotide, anticholinergics). This article reviews the evidence supporting the use of each class of adjuvant analgesic for the treatment of pain in cancer patients and provides a comprehensive outline of dosing recommendations, side effects, and drug interactions.
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PMID:Adjuvant analgesics in cancer pain management. 1547 43

Supportive care is a multidimensional field, that involves caring for a patient's symptoms either during and/or after treatment. Ideally, once these supportive care needs are met, patients can enjoy an improved quality of life. Supportive care needs include all body systems, and are, therefore, difficult to manage, secondary to the fact that they require collaboration among multiple medical specialties. In this review, several components of supportive care are separated into two categories: tumor-related morbidities and treatment-related morbidities. Some of the themes discussed include nausea and vomiting, cancer pain, psychological distress, fatigue and anemia, small bowel obstruction and peripheral neuropathy. While all of these components are challenging to manage, it is perhaps the psychosocial realm that remains the most unmet need. Regardless, the oncologist must act as a facilitator who addresses these needs and, if unable to address the issue alone, knows how to steer the patient toward the appropriate provider. As these needs are met, the goal is for quality of life to improve; and with the improvement in quality of life we may expect to see improved survival outcomes.
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PMID:Supportive care for women with gynecologic cancers. 1827 64

In this case report, we describe continuous subcutaneous infusion of opiates as PCAO (patient controlled analgesia in outpatients) in one patient with metastatic carcinoma of the rectum (liver and bone metastases, partial bowel obstruction) with severe cancer pain and vomiting in the terminal phase. The parenteral administration of opioids extended over 58 days. The infusion was powered by an external portable clockwork-driven syringe pump (Perfusor M, Braun Medical/Germany). The open-accessible pump has a syringe volume of 10 ml, and its maximal infusion time is 24 h. The 27-G infusion needle (Sub-Q-Set, Baxter/USA) was inserted in the side of the abdomen and was left in the same position for 10 to 20 days. It took the patient and his family only 1.5 h to familiarize themselves with the use of the pump. They were trained in its use in our outpatient pain department. For pain control both the variable continuous infusion and the extra injection doses could be administered by the way of the syringe driver. The patient was given a stock of 120 ampoules of morphine for further treatment at home. For optimal pain control he decided to raise the daily dose of opioid infusion from the initial 60 mg to 240 mg morphine within 48 h. In this way, PCAO-besides rapid titration of the opioid dose to achieve analgesia-allows the use of opioids controlled by the patient himself. In the present case this procedure was also important when an outpatient radiation therapy became urgently necessary to prevent a fracture of the spine because of metastasis. The pain control by the patient himself was the main factor to get free of pain during the transport to the hospital. Even positioning for radiation was possible without pain. When he received outpatient radiation therapy the patient needed extra injection doses of up to 360 mg morphine a day. The PCAO procedure by continuous subcutaneous infusion with opiates is a safe and efficient method of pain management for outpatient patients suffering from severe cancer pain and intractable nausea in the terminal phase. Its validity has also been proven especially for radiation treatment of bone metastases.
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PMID:[Patient-controlled analgesia in outpatients with severe cancer pain.]. 1841 39

Pain is one of the most frequent and most distressing symptoms in the course of cancer. The management of pain in cancer patients is based on the concept of the World Health Organization (WHO) analgesic ladder and was recently updated with the EAPC (European Association for Palliative Care) recommendations. Cancer pain may be relieved effectively with opioids administered alone or in combination with adjuvant analgesics. Corticosteroids are commonly used adjuvant analgesics and play an important role in neuropathic and bone pain treatment. However, in spite of the common use of corticosteroids, there is limited scientific evidence demonstrating their efficacy in cancer patients with pain. The use of corticosteroids in spinal cord compression, superior vena cava obstruction, raised intracranial pressure, and bowel obstruction is better established than in other nonspecific indications. This review aims to present the role of steroids in pain and management of other symptoms in cancer patients according to the available data, and discusses practical aspects of steroid use.
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PMID:The role of corticosteroids in the treatment of pain in cancer patients. 2264 2