BIOLOGY OF HEAD AND NECK CANCER PAIN

摘要

Pain is one of the most common presenting complaints in patients with advanced cancers occurring in about thirds of the patients at the time when they are first diagnosed to an average of 60-100% of the patients in the terminal stages of the disease process. Oral cancer is the sixth most common malignancy in both sexes in the world and the third most common malignancy in the developing nations. Among these, about half of the patients die within five years from the day of diagnosis while the ones who survive are left with severe functional and aesthetic compromises. Despite all these complications and the significant morbidity and mortality associated with this deadly and to-happen consequences, cancer-associated pain is one of the most common situations difficult to manage in a significant number of cancer affected patients. Despite all the advances in the understanding, diagnosis as well as treatment modalities available for the treatment of cancer associated pain, a significant fraction of patients are left to bear considerable pain owing to the lack of an exact criteria for the evaluation of pain, reluctance of the health care providers regarding the use of opioids and the reservation of advanced treatment modalities for the management of pain only in its advanced or terminal stages.