Cancer-related pain--I. Prevalence in an outpatient setting as a function of stage of disease and type of cancer.

Cancer-related pain is a clinical problem of enormous significance that has received relatively little scientific study. Most reports of its prevalence and treatment have examined inpatient populations with varying degrees of regard for the stage of disease and the presence of non cancer-related sources of pain. In the present study, 208 consecutive ambulatory patients with cancer were evaluated. Nearly half (47.9%) reported no pain during the preceding week, 33.5% had pain directly referable to their cancer and 6.7% were suffering from pain related to therapy for their cancer. A small group (11%) had pain readily attributable to a source other than their cancer. Patients with metastatic disease, particularly those with bone metastases, reported cancer-related pain significantly more often than patients with local and regional disease (p less than 0.001). Patients with lymphoma reported the presence of cancer-related pain significantly less often than patients in all other diagnostic categories (p less than 0.001).