Controversies in cancer pain. Medical perspectives.

The treatment of pain in the patient with cancer has focused attention on a series of controversial issues involving medical, social, and moral factors. The medical factors include a lack of knowledge on the part of health care professionals regarding the rational use of opioid drugs. This is coupled with real limitations in the general understanding of the mechanisms of pain and its treatment using pharmacologic, anesthetic, and neurosurgical approaches. Several pharmacologic controversies, including the choice of drug, route and method of administration, and tolerance development and risk of substance abuse, have emerged with the use of opioids on a chronic basis in the cancer population. The social and moral implications involve the issue of who will pay for high technology pain management approaches for patients either at home or in hospice care and the ethical considerations in managing pain with opioid drugs. Carefully designed studies to assess these factors, coupled with broad educational programs, will improve the care of cancer patients in pain and expand our understanding of these important issues.