When cancer pain breaks through, what can you do?

Breakthrough pain in cancer patients can be very difficult to manage, primarily because of its heterogeneous and fleeting nature, so careful assessment is imperative to finding an adequate treatment regimen. Only a paucity of good research exists to support current interventions, and additional viable options need to be discovered. Oncology nurses must play an integral role in improving the treatment of breakthrough pain-one patient, one in-service for colleagues, and one clinical research study at a time.