Cancer pain: is it treatable? Facts & Fictions
Some facts about cancer pain:
- 10 lakh new cancer patients are diagnosed every year in India.
- 60% are diagnosed in advanced stage, so require only pain management and palliative care.
- 30%-50% have pain at the time of diagnosis.
- 70% to 90% have severe pain when the disease is advanced.
- 40% die with severe pain.
- 60%-80%complains of inadequate pain relief by their physician.
- 30% are not relieved by drug treatment alone, so require interventional pain management.
- More than 90% cancer pain can be adequately controlled.
From the above statistics it is seen that cancer pain is inevitable at some stage of the disease, but at the same time 90% of the cancer pain are curable by some means or other.
Apart from being excruciating and intolerable in nature there are other reasons to control the cancer pain.
- Cancer pain is curable; at least it can be controlled.
- Psychological effects of cancer pain can be avoided. (anxiety, depression, lack of sleep, anger, suicidal attempts).
- Precipitation of diseases like diabetes, hypertension can be avoided.
- Meaningful and productive social life can be lived.
- Effective pain control can prolong life.
- Relatives also relieved from constant worries.