Iowa Health System Working together. Making a difference. Give Us Feedback Back To Home Search Our Site Getting Relief from Cancer Pain Cancer Research at Trinity. One of the major fears of people with cancer is unrelieved pain.
Worries often keep the patient with cancer in unnecessary pain.
The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research published a patient guide for the Management of Cancer Pain which clearly examines the causes of cancer pain and treatments. The guideline reminds patients with cancer to tell their health care professional as much as possible about the pain. Describing the pain with words like ache, dull, stabbing, shooting, crushing, or numbness and tingling, and rating the pain's intensity is helpful. A rating scale frequently used is 0-10 with 0 meaning no pain and 10 meaning the worst pain imaginable. Characterizing the pain will help the health care provider to prescribe the most appropriate pain relief program.