Pain Management for Pancreatic Cancer
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Supportive Therapies for Pancreatic Cancer Patients: Pain Management
You may experience pain at some point during the course of your pancreatic cancer treatment. We understand that unrelieved pain can diminish your quality of life as well as your ability to battle the disease. The Pain Management Department at CTCA takes an aggressive and comprehensive approach to controlling pancreatic cancer pain.
Cancer-related pain can result from both the disease process and from pancreatic cancer treatment. The severity and prevalence of your pain depends on a number of factors, including the site and stage of the disease and the location of metastases.
Upon your arrival at CTCA, you will meet with a pain management specialist to assess your pain. Based on this assessment, your pain specialist will work with you to develop an individualized pain management plan.
This plan will include various pain management techniques, such as pharmacological interventions (the use of medications). Some cancer treatments, such as palliative surgery and radiation therapy, may also be used to provide relief from pain.
Your care team may also provide other pain control methods, such as physical therapy, auriculotherapy, massage, and scar tissue manipulation (which may be particularly helpful to help relieve pain after pancreatic cancer surgery).
In addition, pancreatic cancer patients often experience pain that is neuropathic in nature. If you experience neuropathic pain, your pain specialist will consult with other members of your care team to provide nerve injections, implanted pain pumps, or nerve stimulation devices like Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation (TENS) to help promote nerve regeneration.
Throughout your treatment, the pain management team is on call 24/7 to help you anticipate and proactively manage cancer-related pain.
Your pain specialist will evaluate you to ensure you are comfortable and continually receiving the pain relief you need. Your pain specialist will also troubleshoot any side effects of pain medication, such as nausea, drowsiness, and constipation. The goal is to consistently strive for a balance between controlling pain and preserving quality of life.
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