Chronic pain: Challenges in the assessment and management of cancer pain

Assessing and managing pain while caring for the whole patient is a challenge for physicians. Barriers to pain management include clinician-, patient-, and health system-related issues. The traditional model of care is focused on disease-specific treatments. If these treatments fail, the focus shifts to palliation. A new model of care integrates disease-specific treatments with palliative care and rehabilitation. This model includes prevention and treatment of suffering. An essential element of this model is evaluation of the patient's concerns about the future and fear. Treating patient pain with quality pain management and palliative care involves a holistic pain assessment and management strategy. J Pain Symptom Manage 2000;19:S12-S15. (C) U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee, 2000.