Bone Cancer Treatments – Pain Management
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Pain Management for Bone Cancer
Many patients with advanced bone cancer experience some pain during the course of their disease. The care team at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) is acutely aware that unrelieved pain can significantly diminish your quality of life. Our pain management team provides a variety of therapeutic approaches to help relieve your pain so you can better cope with your bone cancer treatment.
Pain Classifications
Bone cancer pain may be classified as either acute or chronic. Acute pain generally results from tissue damage and is of limited duration (e.g., three months or less). It differs from chronic pain because it is easier to identify and successfully manage. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is persistent and usually lasts for greater than three months in duration. Because the cause of chronic pain often cannot be altered, your nervous system may adapt, which may in turn cause depression, anxiety, and/or insomnia.
Causes of Pain
Pain can result from both the disease process itself and from bone cancer treatments. Each person experiences pain differently. The severity and prevalence of your pain depends on many factors, including the site and stage of the disease, as well as your age, personality, perception, pain threshold, and past experiences with pain. In addition, psychological factors, such as fear, can influence pain. Insomnia, fatigue and anxiety may lower the pain threshold, while rest, sleep and diversion can raise it.
Pain Assessment
An accurate assessment of your pain experience helps your CTCA care team determine which pain management techniques will be best suited to your needs. To make an assessment, the pain management team may examine any of the following dimensions of your pain:
- Location
- Intensity
- Factors influencing its occurrence (i.e., what makes it better or worse)
- Observed behaviors during pain
- Psychosocial variables (e.g., attitudes, situational factors)
- Effects of therapy and patterns of coping
Pain Management Plan
At CTCA, your care team will incorporate various pain management techniques into your bone cancer treatment plan. The goal of pain management is not only pain relief, but also to help you maintain your normal quality of life during bone cancer treatment. All pain management methods attempt to either control the cause of the pain or alter your perception of it.
Although there are many different pain management techniques, therapeutic approaches can be classified in two ways: pharmacological and non-pharmacological. Pharmacological pain control involves the use of analgesics (pain medications), as well as other medications that intensify the analgesics' effects or modify your mood or pain perception.
The following are some non-pharmacological approaches to pain management:
- Behavioral techniques
- Emotional counseling and support
- Radiation
- Surgery
- Neurological and neurosurgical interventions
- Traditional nursing and psychosocial interventions
The latter approaches attempt to promote your comfort during bone cancer treatment and evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy. Because of the complex nature of cancer-related pain, successful management usually involves integrating several different techniques into your bone cancer treatment plan.
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