Tumor-Peripheral Nerve Interactions in a Model of Cancer Pain

摘要

Cancer continues to be a major health problem worldwide. The World Health Organization (1996) reported that one-third of patients receiving treatment for cancer experience pain, as do two-thirds of patients with advanced cancer and more than four-fifths of terminal cancer patients. In the United States alone, one of every four deaths results from cancer. The American Cancer Society (2003) estimated that 556,500 Americans would die of cancer in 2003, a mortality rate of more than 1,500 per day, exceeded only by heart disease. For the cancer patient, the potential lethality of the disease is frequently compounded by insidious pain. Its neurobiological origins are poorly understood, and pain tends to increase in relation to metastatic destruction. The correlation between tumor growth and cancer pain is reflected in the World Health Organization's "analgesic ladder" with its progression from non-opioid to weak opioid to strong opioid intervention for pain relief (World Health Organization 1996).