Managing symptoms of secondary bone cancer

For many people with secondary bone cancer, managing symptoms may make you feel better.

Learn more about:

• Pain
• Fatigue
• Complementary therapies

Pain

Your doctor may prescribe pain-relieving medicines to reduce the pain. What you are prescribed will depend on the type of pain.

If you have mild pain, options include:

• paracetamol

• non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

If you have moderate to severe pain, opioid-based medicines, like oxycodone or morphine, are used.

For bone pain, steroids like dexamethasone, may be used. For example, they may be used instead of NSAIDs in people with kidney (renal) failure and bone pain.

If your treatment shrinks the bone tumours or reduces the pressure on nerves and surrounding tissues, your doctor may be able to reduce the dose of the pain-relieving medicines.

For more on this, see Pain and cancer, and listen to our podcast on Managing Pain when Cancer Is Advanced.

Fatigue

Many people experience extreme or constant tiredness known as fatigue. This may be because the cancer is affecting your bone marrow.

You’ll have blood tests to monitor your blood cell count. If your red blood cell level is low (anaemia), you might have a blood transfusion.

For more on this, see our general section on Fatigue, and listen to our podcast on Managing Cancer Fatigue.