During treatment, patients frequently experience food aversions and may avoid temporarily distasteful, even though nutritious, foods. Temporary damage to taste buds often makes patients desire highly seasoned items and unless advised to avoid certain foods, patients may eat whatever is appealing. At the same time, patients should question their physician, nurse, or dietitian about eating problems such as dry or sore mouth, altered taste sensations, and changes in bowel habits. Most people assume cancer causes pain, even though there are some types of cancer that cause little or no discomfort. A few forms of cancer may involve a moderate amount of pain, but less intense than the pain experienced in some forms of arthritis, certain nerve disorders, and other less feared diseases.
Drugs remain the main avenue of pain relief for patients suffering from chronic cancer pain.
Mild discomfort usually can be controlled by acetaminophen or other nonnarcotic painkillers. About a third of patients undergoing active treatment experience severe pain and require stronger medications, and pain can be more pronounced in people with advanced cancers. Narcotics, properly used, can ease cancer pain for months or years while maintaining the patient in a lucid, functional state. Often, narcotics combined with antidepressant drugs are very effective in controlling pain with little or no impairment of function. For advanced cancer pain, morphine, methadone, and similar opiate derivatives should be administered in sufficient quantity to relieve pain.