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Pain and cancer
People with cancer don’t always have pain. However, some people may have pain due to the cancer, its treatment, or other conditions that are unrelated to the cancer.
People experience pain in different ways and even people with the same type of cancer can have different experiences.
Watch this video to see how different people have coped with their cancer pain.
Cancer pain can be challenging but there are ways to manage it.
Learn more about:
- What is pain and its causes?
- Types of pain
- Cancer pain professionals
- Describing pain
- Cancer treatment for pain relief
- Using pain medicines
- Treating mild pain
- Treating moderate to severe pain
- Other ways to control pain
- Caring for someone in pain
If you’d like to speak to someone about managing cancer pain, call Cancer Council 13 11 20.
Listen to our podcast on Managing Cancer Pain
Additional resources
This information has been developed by Cancer Council NSW on behalf of all other state and territory Cancer Councils as part of a National Cancer Information Working Group initiative. We thank the reviewers of this information: Dr Tim Hucker, Clinical Lead, Pain Service, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and Lecturer, Monash University, VIC; Carole Arbuckle, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council Victoria; Anne Burke, Co-Director, Psychology, Central Adelaide Local Health Network, SA, and President Elect, The Australian Pain Society; Kathryn Collins, Co-Director, Psychology, Central Adelaide Local Health Network, SA; A/Prof Roger Goucke, Head, Department of Pain Management, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Director, WA Statewide Pain Service, and Clinical A/Prof, The University of Western Australia, WA; Chris Hayward, Consumer; Prof Melanie Lovell, Senior Staff Specialist, Palliative Care, HammondCare Centre for Learning and Research, Clinical A/Prof, Sydney Medical School, and Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, NSW; Linda Magann, Clinical Nurse Consultant, Palliative Care and Peritonectomy Palliative Care, St George Hospital, NSW; Tara Redemski, Senior Physiotherapist, Gold Coast University Hospital, Southport, QLD.
Thank you to the Australian Adult Cancer Pain Management Guideline Working Party, Improving Palliative Care through Clinical Trials (ImPaCCT), and the Centre for Cardiovascular and Chronic Care (University of Technology Sydney), whose work contributed to the development of the previous editions of this booklet. Thank you also to the original writers, Dr Melanie Lovell and Prof Frances Boyle AM.
View the Cancer Council NSW editorial policy.
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