Role of radiotherapy in management of cancer pain.

To a cancer patient, pain is a very distressing symptom and to the physician it heralds advanced nature of the disease. While the mechanisms of initiation of pain are simple, its perception is very complex. In cancer, the tumor growth which results in producing pressure, destruction of tissue, and obstruction is the main cause of pain production. Ionizing radiation, which checks tumor growth and shrinks the tumor most of the time, plays a major role in relieving pain in a cancer patient.