Cancer Pain

Cancer does not always cause pain so work out what this particular pain is being caused by

• Primary tumour?
• Metastases?
• Treatment related
• Unrelated issue?

It is usually progressive in nature

Patient may be distressed - due to many factors including emotional/psychological/social

• "Total pain"

Cancer pain can be:

• Mixed nociceptive/neuropathic
• Acute/chronic or acute on chronic?
• Incident or breakthrough pain?