Oncology Pain and Complementary Therapy

Abstract

Half of all patients with cancer experience some level of pain, so pain management is an important topic for oncology nurses. Pharmacologic measures traditionally are the primary intervention for bone, visceral, neuropathic, and procedural pain; however, many patients are turning to an integrative approach of Western and complementary therapies for pain and symptom management. The authors explored the current evidence concerning the effectiveness of complementary therapies in relation to cancer pain and symptom control.

<p>Current Perspectives on Spinal Cord Stimulation for the Treatment of Cancer Pain</p>

“…2 It is concerning that conventional pharmacologic therapy based on the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines may fail to achieve acceptable pain relief in 10-15% of cancer patients. 3,4 Furthermore, chronic cancer pain may have a significant neuropathic pain component in up to 40% of patients, which often responds poorly to conventional pharmacologic therapy including opioid-based therapy. 5 In patients with refractory pain, interventional pain management modalities may provide substantial pain relief.…”

Neuromodulation and the Epidemiology of Magnetic Resonance Utilization for Lung, Breast, Colon, and Prostate Cancer

“…Neuromodulation represents a growing frontier in modern medicine. In cancer pain, where epidemiologic studies approximate that 15% of patients fail to achieve acceptable pain levels through conventional pharmacologic management, the use of neurostimulation is being studied to see if stimulation can improve pain outcomes in comparison or addition to the implantation of intrathecal drug delivery pumps (ITP) (1). Yet, this patient cohort, from high‐risk pre‐diagnosis to posttreatment survivors, presents significant concerns for implanting physicians due to the increased likelihood of magnetic resonance (MR) scans post‐implantation.…”

“…SCS, in particular, is of interest as an alternative treatment modality for cancer‐related pain (1). The first reported case of pain relief through the use of SCS was, in fact, in the treatment of cancer‐related chest and abdominal pain, published in 1967 (4).…”