The level of emotional distress that a cancer pain patient feels varies individually, depending on many factors such as personality and family support. Untreated pain leads to many cancer suicides. Psychotherapy is an important part of cancer pain management. The goals of psychotherapy are to provide emotional support and stability, and to help patients adapt to their crisis situation. Many patients are frightened by the potential damage to the nervous system that these kinds of treatments can cause.
Anesthetics are substances that block nerves so that they can no longer transmit pain signals.
There are many others. Antitumor therapy focuses on the cancer, not just the pain, and so it provides cancer patients with the hope for prolonged life as well as relief from pain. The most common antinociceptive procedure used to relieve cancer pain is the cordotomy, which involves cutting bundles of nerves in the spinal cord to interrupt the pain pathway. It is used for patients with short life expectancies who feel somatic pain on one side of their body below the waste. It is usually effective for 1-3 years.