Advances in radiation therapy for oncologic pain.

Pain is a feared component of cancer for a patient. The patient's prior experience with cancer pain will affect how he or she deals with ongoing and acute onset new pain. Radiation therapy has been and continues to be a major component in the management of cancer pain. New technologies are rapidly becoming available that will allow more specific and accurate targeting, while limiting the dose that is received by normal tissues and thus minimizing the potential for tissue toxicity. How new techniques and technologies are incorporated into the management of cancer pain will require a better understanding of the disease process being treated.