Pain Management for Cervical Cancer

Most patients with advanced cervical cancer experience painful symptoms at some time during the course of their disease. At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), we are acutely aware that unrelieved pain can significantly diminish your quality of life. That is why our care team provides dedicated resources towards mitigating the effects of pain related to cervical cancer and its treatment.

There are two types of pain normally associated with cervical cancer: acute and chronic. Acute pain generally results from tissue damage and is of limited duration. Once the cause has been identified, acute pain can be successfully managed during your cervical cancer treatment. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is persistent—usually greater than three months in duration. Because the cause of chronic pain also cannot be altered, it can cause additional cervical cancer symptoms and side effects such as depression, anxiety and/or insomnia.

Causes

The severity and prevalence of pain you may experience depends on many factors, including the site and stage of your disease, as well as the exact location and size of metastasis. Cancer-related pain can result from both the disease process, as well as from side effects of cervical cancer treatment.

Pain affects each cervical cancer patient differently. Factors such as age, personality, perception, pain threshold and even past experiences with pain can impact your personal experience. Furthermore, psychological factors, including depression, anxiety, fear or worries can influence the effect of pain. Similarly, insomnia and fatigue may lower the pain threshold, while rest, sleep and diversion can raise it.

Assessment

In order to prescribe the most effective pain management techniques for your cervical cancer symptoms, an accurate and comprehensive assessment of your pain experience must first be performed. An initial assessment analyzes the following information about the dimensions of your pain:

• Location
• Intensity
• Factors influencing its occurrence (e.g., what makes it better or worse)
• Observed behaviors during pain
• Psychosocial variables (i.e., attitudes, situational factors)
• Effects of pain
• Effects of therapy and patterns of coping

Pain management

The goal of incorporating pain management into a patient’s cervical cancer treatment is not only to provide relief from pain, but to improve and preserve your normal quality of life. Whether we make an attempt to directly control the cause of the pain or to instead alter your perception of it, CTCA offers a wide variety of pain management techniques.

In general, management techniques for cervical cancer symptoms can be classified as either pharmacological or non-pharmacological. Pharmacological pain control involves the use of analgesics and drugs that reduce pain. Our care team can also prescribe medications that intensify the analgesics' effects or modify your mood or pain perception. Non-pharmacological approaches include

• Behavioral techniques
• Radiation
• Surgery
• Neurological and neurosurgical interventions
• Traditional nursing and psychosocial interventions

Our pain management therapies are continually evaluated on their ability to reduce pain and improve patient comfort during cervical cancer treatment. At CTCA, our comprehensive blend of approaches allows us to effectively address the complex nature of cervical cancer-related pain on a variety of levels.