http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23115483

Clin Med Insights Oncol. 2012;6:331-46. doi: 10.4137/CMO.S8360. Epub 2012 Oct 8.

Clinical management of pain in advanced lung cancer.

Simmons CP, Macleod N, Laird BJ.

Source

Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. EH4 2XR.

Abstract

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world and pain is its most common symptom. Pain can be brought about by several different causes including local effects of the tumor, regional or distant spread of the tumor, or from anti-cancer treatment. Patients with lung cancer experience more symptom distress than patients with other types of cancer. Symptoms such as pain may be associated with worsening of other symptoms and may affect quality of life. Pain management adheres to the principles set out by the World Health Organization's analgesic ladder along with adjuvant analgesics. As pain can be caused by multiple factors, its treatment requires pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures from a multidisciplinary team linked in with specialist palliative pain management. This review article examines pain management in lung cancer.