Esophageal Cancer Treatment – Pain Management

Pain Management for Esophageal Cancer

Most patients with advanced esophageal cancer experience pain 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. We offer a variety of complementary pain management therapies to help lessen and reduce painful side effects and make your esophageal cancer treatment as comfortable as we possibly can.

Pain experienced during your esophageal cancer treatment may be acute or chronic. Acute pain generally results from tissue damage and is of limited duration. Once the cause of acute pain has been identified, it can be successfully managed. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is persistent and usually defined as lasting three months or more. Because the cause of chronic pain often cannot be altered, your nervous system will adapt, which may cause depression, anxiety and/or insomnia.

Causes

The severity and prevalence of pain you may experience depend on many factors, including the site and stage of your esophageal cancer and the location of metastases. Cancer-related pain can result from both the disease process, as well as esophageal cancer treatment itself. Pain affects each person differently, depending on factors such as age, personality, perception, pain threshold and past experiences with pain. Psychological factors such as fear, worries or knowledge of impending death can also influence the effect of pain. Insomnia, fatigue and anxiety may lower the pain threshold, while rest, sleep and diversion can raise it.

Assessment

An accurate assessment of your pain experience provides a basis for an evaluation of various pain management techniques. As part of your esophageal cancer treatment, the care experts at CTCA can perform a comprehensive assessment about 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 pain
• Effects of therapy and patterns of coping

Pain Management

The goal of pain management is not only to relieve pain during your esophageal cancer treatment, but also maintain your normal quality of life as much as possible. All methods of pain management attempt to either control the cause of the pain or alter your perception of it.

Although pain management techniques are many and varied, therapeutic approaches can be classified as either pharmacological or nonpharmacological. Pharmacological pain control involves the use of analgesics, as well as other medications that intensify the analgesics' effects or modify your mood or pain perception. Nonpharmacological approaches include:

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

The latter measures attempt to promote your comfort during your esophageal cancer treatment and evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy. Because of the complex nature of cancer-related pain, successful management usually involves a combination of techniques.

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