89, No.17, September 3, 1997. People with cancer have two types of pain. Persistent pain means it is continuous and present most of the time. You may be on medication around the clock for this type of pain. Pain is an unstable phenomenon, meaning that it may vary due to numerous factors, including disease progression, activity level, specific movements, or stress level.
Most patients experience many peaks and valleys of pain daily.
Breakthrough pain is defined as a temporary moderate to severe flare in pain that occurs even though you may be taking medications regularly. This does not mean that your around the clock medication has failed, or that your pain is uncontrolled. It means that your doctor may want to consider adding other medications that work quickly and for short periods of time. Idiopathic or spontaneous pain has no particular pattern or reason that pain increases. Another time that your pain may increase is just before you are to take a dose of medication on your regular pain medicine.