In what ways is cancer pain relieved?

Cancer pain is a special form of pain management. Clinical practice has shown that the choice of treatment depends on the duration of cancer pain, the location of the pain, the nature of the pain and the degree of pain. At present, in addition to the well-known principle of “three-step treatment” for cancer pain, pain specialists at home and abroad, in accordance with the World Health Organization’s recommendation of another principle of treatment that patients or their families are not yet familiar with, i.e., the principle of individualized treatment for patients with cancer pain. The principle of individualized treatment refers to the fact that the treatment methods for cancer pain patients vary from time to time, from site to site, and from symptom to symptom, or collectively referred to as person to person. The specific treatment methods are as follows: Oral or patch opioids are simple and practical. Cancer pain patients should first choose the oral or skin patch analgesic methods which are convenient for treatment and have obvious therapeutic effect. For these two kinds of treatment effect is not obvious or side effects are large, should not immediately give up the treatment. One should immediately consult a specialist at a hospital with a pain specialty to help relieve the patient of the adverse effects. Intravertebral injection of opioids is effective When the efficacy of opioids is unsatisfactory or serious side effects persist, the treatment should be changed immediately. Intrathecal injection therapy, which is less expensive and less likely to cause side effects, is an option. These methods include patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) method and intermittent intrathecal injection method. The former basically realizes the purpose of automatic drug administration for cancer pain patients according to their needs, and does not require healthcare personnel or family members to keep a watchful eye on when to inject drugs, how much drugs are injected, and who injects the drugs. The latter side needs to have special person, on time, quantitative injection treatment for patients. Ultra-selective neuro-interventional therapy for analgesia for a long time When metastatic chest wall pain occurs in patients with lung cancer or breast cancer, in addition to the application of opioids, regional long-lasting neuro-interventional therapy should be carried out according to the site of pain. This treatment can significantly relieve chest wall pain and avoid or reduce the adverse reactions such as nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and constipation that opioids bring to patients in the long term. More and more cases have confirmed that, especially for patients with early chest wall pain, in addition to treating cancer pain, intermittent local analgesia plus local chemotherapy may slow down the metastasis of chest wall cancer. Some patients can continue to have analgesia for weeks to months or even years with one treatment. When the analgesic effect of one therapy is not obvious, a combination of analgesic therapies must be used. The most prominent advantage of this therapy is that the simultaneous application of a variety of analgesic drugs or treatments, so that the total amount of drugs is relatively reduced, the analgesic effect is significantly stronger than a single drug, while the side effects are less than a single drug. It is also a more reasonable way of drug administration in developed countries and a treatment mode that is easily accepted by cancer pain patients. Hospitalization and home analgesic treatment to meet different patients’ needs Hospitalization or home treatment should be chosen according to different patients’ needs. For those patients who have serious complications in pain treatment, which are difficult to be handled at home for a while, they should choose to be hospitalized in a general hospital. For some cancer pain patients with stable conditions and satisfactory analgesic effect, they can be treated at home under the guidance of pain treatment specialists. If necessary, pain specialists can be requested to come to the patient’s home to provide guidance on pain relief treatment.