Cancer pain

Cancer pain is pain caused by a tumor pressing on or invading bone, nerves or organs, or by the surgery, chemotherapy and radiation used to treat the disease.

It can be constant or come in breakthrough episodes, and it may be described as aching, sharp, burning or tingling depending on whether tissue or nerves are involved. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, post-surgical pain and bone pain from metastases are common examples. Pain is experienced by a large share of people with advanced cancer and significantly affects sleep, mood and daily function.

Oncology teams assess pain with standardized rating scales and examination, then follow stepwise approaches that combine non-opioid and opioid medications, nerve blocks, radiation to painful sites and supportive therapies. Cannabinoid combinations containing THC have been trialed for cancer pain with mixed results, and evidence for cannabidiol on its own is insufficient; it is not a cancer therapy.