Preventing Pain Treat cancer pain aggressively, federal panel advises Cancer pain is widely undertreated, reported a 26-member federal panel in March. Not so, says Jacox. It is not true that there is a ceiling on morphine. Even if enough opiates cannot be given to control the pain, the patient need not suffer.
Clinicians can resort to more invasive techniques, such as nerve blocks.
The panel also sought to debunk a widespread misconception that pain just inevitably comes with cancer. Even in terminal patients, pain may or may not be present. After a cancer patient recovers and no longer suffers pain, drugs can be safely withdrawn, the panel found. But dependence should not be confused with addiction. Jacox explains that because cancer patients do not take their drugs for the sake of a high, they almost never develop the psychological cravings of true addiction.