Treatment of chronic pain in oncology: cooperation between the oncologist and psychooncologist ABSTRACT The aim of this work is to present the problem of chronic pain in neoplastic disease as a situation requiring dia gnosis and interdisciplinary treatment. The phenomenon of chronic pain, its types, and causes are discussed.A discussion was held on appropriate scales for measuring pain intensity. Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy were primarily presented among the discussed treatment methods, and issues related to other methods of inter actions related to the treatment of patients with chronic pain in the course of neoplastic disease were discussed.The key aspect of the article is to draw attention to the implementation of multispecialist treatment of chronic pain, including personalised solutions and the accommodation of the most favourable form of therapy and the methods of its implementation.

Chronic pain is one of the most common and most bothersome symptoms in cancer patients, which occurs especially often in the elderly population. Although methods of pain treatment are well known, it is not uncommon for individuals with chronic or terminal illnesses to remain underdiagnosed or untreated. Effective pain management has become the measure of success in oncology therapy. For this reason, effective pain management has become an indispensable success factor of multidisciplinary oncological therapy. Along with the growing interest in the holistic approach in medicine, and hence in interdisciplinary treatment, the management of cancer pain in older patients was presented.

Introduction:The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of complementary and alternative therapies (CAT) by palliative care patients treated at home in Poland. Patients and methods: A total of 241 adult patients with advanced or metastatic cancer who were qualified for palliative care provided at home filled out the CAT screening tool. Data were analysed to assess CAT use association with several variables. Results: 82.16% of individuals who completed the survey declared using CAT at least once in the last 12 months. Self-help practices were the most used CAT category (74.47%), it was followed by herbal medicine and dietary supplements (62.66%) and visits to CAT providers (41.91%). CAT use was more prevalent among women, patients with basic education, and patients currently married and widowed. The most common reason pointed for using CAT was to improve well-being (35.4%). 50.5% of CAT users declared that they find used therapy helpful or very helpful. The study revealed an exceptionally high prevalence of spiritual practices (self-prayer, spiritual healing) in comparison to previous European studies conducted among the cancer patient population. Conclusions:The study indicated that usage of CAT among advanced cancer patients treated at home is significant, with a higher prevalence of spiritual practices than reported in previous studies among cancer patients in Europe.