According to new research, one of the agents, called Quadramet(r) (samarium SM 153 lexidronam injection), may be more useful than previously thought.

Quadramet can provide very long-lasting pain relief for people with cancer suffering from bone pain,” said Dr. Oliver Sartor, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Cancer pain occurs in many ways. Your pain may be dull, aching or sharp. It could be constant, intermittent, mild, moderate or severe. Adjuvant medications may be used for pain that is difficult to manage. These medications  originally designed to treat conditions other than pain, such as tricyclic antidepressants.

Pain-killers usually work and debunking any fears people had about the drugs reduced the pain cancer patients felt by an additional one point on a scale of one to ten, where average pain scores are about five out of ten.

All patients were being treated with strong pain-killers but those given the additional information experienced significantly better pain control. The researchers are calling for educational programmes on managing cancer pain and strong pain-killers to be given routinely alongside treatment drugs for cancer.

Courtesy: www.medicalnewstoday.com

There are three types of cancer pain, based on where in the body the pain is felt, somatic, visceral, and neuropathic.  Pain of all three types can be either acute or chronic. Somatic, visceral, and neuropathic pain can all be felt at the same time or singly and at different times.

Somatic pain relates to nerve ending in tissues or bones which may feel aching.

Viscera refers to the internal areas of the body that are enclosed within a cavity, like the chest, abdomen and pelvis.

Neuropathic pain can be damage or irritation to nerves. It is often described as sharp, flashing, burning, like an electric shock or tingling.

People with cancer often feel severe or constant pain. The pain the cancer patient experience depends on the type of cancer they have, the stage the disease and the therapy they receive.

Although doctors agree that controlling cancer pain is a high priority, the pain isn’t always understood or treated properly. The pain may be part of a cancer pain syndrome, a specific group of related pains. Cancer pain syndromes can be caused by tumors

Cancer pain can be managed with the availability of pain-relieving therapies, surveys have shown that pain is often under treated in many patients. Physicians may be more focused on control of the disease than on control of pain.