Cancer can cause pain anywhere in the body. Pain here can be due to cancer itself or when cancer grows and compresses surrounding tissues, muscles, bones, and nerves. There is treatment-related pain as well. Certain kinds of chemotherapy can also cause damage to the peripheral nerves and hence pain in the hands and feet. Sometimes radiation therapy causes pain due to damage and swelling of the surrounding tissues like mucositis, skin burns, scarring, etc.
Other symptoms : Nausea, vomiting, decrease in appetite, cough, and arm or leg swelling are also managed by your pain physician.
Treatment : depending on the cause of the pain, the treatment involved is also variable.
- Medications : analgesics, pain patches, nerve medications are a few options
- Radiofrequency ablation : in some cancer, certain nerve fibres are the cause of pain. Heating up those nerve fibres blocks the pain transmission, giving good pain relief. We may be able to decrease pain killers if this treatment works on you.
Treatment depends on the stage of the cancer and associated factors. We have a comprehensive cancer pain management and palliative care centre at Venkateshwara hospital where cancer patients can be adequately relieved of their pain.