Innovative Strategies To Reduce Cancer Pain
Managing pain related to cancer can often be a complex task, as medications may not provide complete relief, or you might need to stop a pain medication because of its side effects. If pain continues, it’s crucial to communicate with your healthcare team. Fortunately, there are non-pharmacological approaches that can help alleviate pain. Utilizing a combination of treatments and therapies often yields better results than relying on a single method.
In some cases, cancer treatments can help relieve pain by targeting its underlying causes, influenced by the type of cancer, the characteristics of the pain, and its location. When cancer care prioritizes pain relief rather than attempting to cure the disease, it is classified as palliative or supportive treatment. Below are effective strategies for managing cancer pain.
Emotional Support
Living with pain can trigger feelings of anxiety, sadness, or frustration. Joining a support group where cancer patients share their journeys can be beneficial. These groups may convene in person or virtually. Mesothelioma Hope offers a caring team devoted to helping mesothelioma patients and their families by providing free resources related to leading treatments, specialized care, and financial assistance.
Muscle Relaxers
Cancer treatments can sometimes lead to pain. For example, radiation therapy might cause scar tissue to form in the treated area, leading to muscle stiffness. Muscle relaxers can be effective in alleviating this tension. Patients may also experience pain stemming from issues unrelated to their cancer treatment, like existing back pain or muscle spasms, and muscle relaxers can offer relief in these cases as well.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy involves the application of a targeted dose of radiation, utilizing x-ray beams to eradicate or damage cancer cells, thereby hindering their growth, multiplication, or spread. This process helps shrink tumors and ease discomfort.
For example, if cancer has spread to the bones, radiation therapy can alleviate pain, or it can reduce headaches associated with elevated pressure in the brain. Typically, a short course of treatment lasting from a few days to two weeks is enough when radiation is employed for pain management.
Improvements in pain may take days or weeks to manifest. During this time, it’s essential to continue using prescribed pain medication. In some instances, pain might worsen before it starts to diminish. Your doctor can recommend alternative medications to assist with this. The radiation doses used for alleviating pain are relatively low, and side effects are generally limited to fatigue.
Nerve Blocks
Traditionally, nerve blocks were considered Step 4 in the WHO analgesic ladder; however, new research indicates that earlier application of these interventions might be more useful. A randomized controlled trial evaluating early versus later neurolytic sympathectomy for abdominal or pelvic cancer pain showed that patients who underwent the procedure sooner needed fewer oral analgesics and enjoyed improved pain management and quality of life. It may be advantageous to consider nerve blocks earlier in treatment when deemed appropriate.
Acupuncture
About 31% of cancer patients reportedly employ acupuncture. However, outcomes can be inconsistent because existing studies often encompass different types of pain (chronic, neuropathic, post-thoracotomy, postoperative, etc.) and frequently exhibit a high risk of bias.
A pilot study involving acupuncture provided ten treatments to participants, resulting in a reduction in numerical pain scores from 6 (prior to treatment) to 3.8 (following treatment), alongside decreased prescriptions for pain medications.
Other reviews have suggested no significant differences in outcomes when acupuncture is added to standard care compared to conventional care alone, or between real and sham acupuncture. Given these varied results, it’s important for clinicians to discuss the potential risks and benefits with patients on an individual basis.
