Cancer pain affects up to 90% of patients suffering from advanced cancer. The cancer itself can cause pain when it compresses or invades into the body’s organs, bones, nerves, and blood vessels. Approximately 40% of cancer patients will experience pain due to treatment e.g. chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Medications such as paracetamol, anti-inflammatory drugs and opioids remain the cornerstone of cancer pain treatment. Additional treatment may include specific medications to target nerve and bone pain resulting from the cancer or its treatment.

For severe cancer pain uncontrolled by medications, or if patients developed intolerable adverse effects to medications, interventional pain therapies may be effective. These include peripheral nerve blocks, sympathetic plexus neurolysis, intraspinal neurolysis and spinal infusion of drugs to provide long-term pain control.