When pain
occurs with cancer, it can almost always be relieved substantially. At
Memorial Sloan-Kettering, pain control is a key component of cancer care.
"Because pain is one of the things people fear most about cancer,
it's important that people know that pain isn't inevitable," says Dr. Richard
Payne, Chief of the Pain and Palliative Care Services at MSK, in an interview
this month on www.mskcc.org. "Many
patients don't understand that pain can be treated
effectively."
Although cancer is not always accompanied by pain, when
pain does occur it should be treated. Pain that goes untreated can have
serious physical and emotional consequences and can even affect the outcome
of treatment. We now know that effective pain management improves quality of
life across the continuum of care.
Factors beyond the conventional
scope of medicine can sometimes affect whether and how patients are treated
for their pain, however. For example, researchers at MSK and other
institutions have found that African-Americans and Hispanics often don't
receive the same level of pain treatment as other patients. Some of the
reasons may have to do with cultural differences between patients and
their doctors. Some patients also may unnecessarily fear addiction to more
serious painkilling drugs such as morphine. Read more about these issues, and
learn more about pain management, on our Web site this month.
