Types of Cancer Pain

Nociceptive Cancer Pain

• Somatic Pain – Bone, skin, muscle, joint capsule. eg, Bony metastasis pain.
• Visceral Pain – Visceral organs. eg, Cancer of the pancreas, gall bladder, liver, stomach, kidney, etc.

Neuropathic Pain

• Burning and tingling sensation.
• Due to injury to nervous tissue. - eg, Tumor pressing on the nerves or spinal cord, chemotherapy/radiation induced damage to nervous tissue.

Central Sensitization pain

• Common cause of “Refractory Cancer Pain”.
• Occur due to changes in the central nervous system in long standing cancer pain.

Phantom pain

• Individual experiences pain relating to a limb or an organ that is not physically part of the body.
• Post amputation pain.

Neuropathic Pain

• Burning and tingling sensation.
• Due to injury to nervous tissue. - eg, Tumor pressing on the nerves or spinal cord, chemotherapy/radiation induced damage to nervous tissue.

Breakthrough pain (BTP)

• Idiopathic (Spontaneous pain) – No obvious precipitating factor.
• End of dose pain – Occur when the dose of medicine drops below analgesic levels.
• Incidental pain – Usually due to some movement like incident pain due to bony metastasis.

Referred Pain

• Pain starts in one area of the body and person feels pain in a different location. eg, Lung cancer pain referred to shoulder.