Not all people with cancer experience pain, but many do and when the pain goes to the bones, it’s often very severe. Currently, treatment for severe cancer pain includes a combination of medications, with a breakthrough medication – often morphine – that is given in between regular doses of the regular pain killer or analgesic .
The FDA has just approved a new medication, Onsolis, to help manage that breakthrough pain. It’s a novel way of giving medication. Onsolis is an opioid called fentanyl , which is often given as a patch to help manage severe pain. Onsolis, on the other …read more

What’s with the “may”?? Pain is very often undertreated in cancer and it’s unforgivable in my opinion. (as my friend would say, “Come on Marijke, tell us how you *really* feel!”) I saw this when I worked in the hospitals and had patients with cancer pain, and I saw it when I worked in palliative care and saw patients arrive who had been in agony because of undertreated pain.
Click here to read more.
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Pain doesn’t affect everyone with cancer, even in the dying phase, but it does affect many. The pain can be from the primary cancer itself or from areas to where the cancer has spread, like the bones.
Cancer pain is a different type of pain to manage from other sorts of chronic pain. In some cases, doctors provide more cancer treatment (chemotherapy or radiation) to help shrink the tumors that may be causing the pain, while in other cases, strong doses of pain killers may be given.
Here is an interesting article on cancer pain, where the author discusses controlling the pain: …read more

Ok, let’s take a look at what’s really happening. Just today, I’ve read the following headlines:

US fentanyl deaths topped 1,000 over 2 years
Fentanyl deaths topped 1,000 over two years
Fentanyl deaths topped 1,000 over 2 yearsin US
Fentanyl deaths in the United States topped 1,000 over 2 years

Seems clear enough, right? Over 1000 people died in the US, over a 2-year period because of fentanyl, right? WRONG. It’s not clear at all.
Want to know what the real headline should be?
Click here to read more.

 
Experimental Procedure Performed as Part of a Large U.S. Clinical Trial
TIRAT CARMEL, Israel, July 21 /PRNewswire/ — InSightec Ltd. announced
today that the first U.S. patient has been treated in the company’s pivotal
trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the non-invasive,
radiation-free ExAblate(R) Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound
(MRgFUS) system as a pain relieving treatment for patients with bone
metastases who have failed an initial round of palliative radiation.
Click here to read more.
 
Image: Newscom
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Although not everyone with cancer develops pain, many do. Sadly, it’s often not treated properly. This problem could be due to the patient or the family (unwillingness to be “doped up” or become dependent upon the medications) or the healthcare staff who don’t know how to properly control cancer pain.
I found this interesting article over at Pain Action called Pain Related to Cancer; Your Pain Management Rights. It’s definitely worth reading. The authors review the important information you need to share with your healthcare provider, different types of medications and the side effects, and the concerns about addiction.
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Yup, C is for car, but it’s also for:
 
Central pain syndrome: According to NINDS, “Central pain syndrome is a neurological condition caused by damage to or dysfunction of the central nervous system (CNS), which includes the brain, brainstem, and spinal cord. This syndrome can be caused by stroke, multiple sclerosis, tumors, epilepsy, brain or spinal cord trauma, or Parkinson’s disease.”
Cancer: It’s at the point that many physicians are pushing to have cancer categorized as a chronic disease since so many people are living with it for longer periods or are beating it altogether. Whether it is ever classified …read more

Breakthrough cancer pain can be very tough to treat. This is the pain that is felt when the regular pain medications don’t hold you as well as they should for as long as they should. So, if you are feeling pain, you can have a separate medication, or more of the original, on top of what you’re receiving.
A medication called Abstral* (fentanyl) is a  tablet that dissolves quickly under the tongue (called sublingual). The advantages of sublingual medications is that patients who can’t eat or drink can still have their medications and the reaction is usually pretty quick.
Cancer pain can …read more

Uganda is a small land-locked country in eastern Africa that has seen more than its share of troubles. Setting political issues aside, the rising rate of disease calls for more health care, including the need for pain control.
Although much of the focus on health care and palliative care in Africa is on people who are dying of AIDS-related disease, those who are dying from cancer are suffering unnecessarily, in the opinion of the World Health Organization (WHO). Unlike the Western world, in Africa, people aren’t diagnosed with cancer in the early stages where it can be treated. …read more

People who have head and neck cancer and who have surgery to remove tumors are often left with neck and/or shoulder pain as a result. This can become a big issue in quality of life and employment because it may result in extremely limited mobility with the arm or even turning the head.
According to study findings presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, acupuncture may be the solution for many people who find themselves in this situation. According to the press release Acupuncture reduces pain and dysfunction in head and neck cancer patients after neck …read more