Airing Pain 101: Persistent Post-Operative Pain in Cancer Survivors

How cancer survivors can experience post-operative pain, and confronting the national issue of post-cancer treatment

This edition is funded by The Agnes Hunter Trust.

An ever-increasing cancer survivor rate means chronic pain associated with the condition and its treatment is growing. In the UK alone, cancer survivor rates have doubled in the last 40 years, from 24% to 50%.[1]

In this edition of Airing Pain, Paul Evans speaks to Dr Paul Farquhar-Smith, consultant in anaesthesia and pain medicine at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London, and co-author of Pain in Cancer Survivors; filling in the gaps.

Dr Farquhar-Smith explains how post-surgical pain in cancer survivors can be caused by damage to the nervous system, what cancer treatments may be associated with this pain, and what pre-surgery steps can be taken to reduce it.

Issues covered in this programme include: Availability of pain services, cancer, chemotherapy, educating healthcare professionals, funding of pain services, gabapentin and pregabalin, gastro-intestinal tract, GP, head surgery, lung surgery, medication, neck surgery, nervous system, neuropathic pain, physiotherapy, policy, post-surgical pain, psychology, radiotherapy, risk factors, thoracotomy and transitional patients.

Contributors:

• Dr Paul Farquhar-Smith, Consultant in Anaesthersia at the Royal Marsden Hospital London, and co-author, with Dr Mathew Brown, of Pain in Cancer Survivors; filling in the gaps.

More information:

• Pain in Cancer Survivors; filling in the gaps
• Macmillan’s page on cancer pain.

[1] http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/survival.