Cancer Pain
Cancer Pain may arise from a tumor compressing or infiltrating nearby body parts, from treatments, or from the body’s own hormonal and immune responses. Chronic (long-lasting) pain is usually caused by the cancer itself and acute (short-term) pain is caused by treatment or diagnostic procedures (iatrogenic).
The presence of chronic pain depends mainly on the location of the cancer and the stage of the disease. At any given time, about half of all patients with malignant cancer are experiencing pain, and two thirds of those with advanced cancer experience pain of such intensity that it adversely affects their sleep, mood, social relations, and activities of daily living.
Iatrogenic Causes
Immunotherapy: It may produce joint or muscle pain
Radiotherapy: It can cause enteritis, fibrosis, myelopathy, bone necrosis, neuropathy or plexopathy.
Chemotherapy: Associated with mucosal inflammation, joint pain, muscle pain, peripheral neuropathy, and abdominal pain due to diarrhea or constipation.
Hormone therapy: It sometimes causes pain flares, targeted therapies, such as trastuzumab and rituximab, which can cause muscle, joint or chest pain; angiogenesis inhibitors like bevacizumab, known to sometimes cause bone pain.
Surgery: It may produce post-operative pain, post-amputation pain or pelvic floor myalgia.
What Are The Symptoms Of Cancer Pain?
The type of pain experienced can help us understand the source that the pain is coming from. For example, pain brought on by nerve damage is frequently described as ‘burning’ or ‘tingling’, whereas internal organ pain is frequently described as a pressure-like sensation.
What Can Kansas Pain Management Do To Treat Cancer Pain?
Kansas Pain Management aims to provide personalized and comprehensive interventional pain management services for all patients. When you come to us for cancer pain, we understand that overcoming pain is a vital step in dealing with and recovering from cancer. The providers at Kansas Pain Management first try to understand the root cause of the pain with thorough evaluations and offers personalized treatment plans that include the most advanced cancer pain management techniques, such as; Continuous Catheter Nerve Blocks, Intrathecal Pain Pumps, Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA), Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS).