Cancer pain: Physical Factors affecting Pain Experience

Background: pain adversely affects cancer patients’ quality of life. knowing different sources of pain helps physicians and patients to manage it. the aim of this study was investigating physical factors affecting pain in iranian cancer patients. methods: this cross-sectional study randomly enrolled cancer patients who were newly admitted to the medical oncology department of cancer institute of iran in 2013. patients were divided into two groups by asking whether they had any pain. the demographic information of the patients were collected from medical records. multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the data. results: a total of 269 participants were included. 52.78% patients suffered from pain. 69.72% of the pain group and 54.33% of the no-pain group were female, and the average age for the pain group was 49.59±13.57. there was a significant difference in the pain control of patients who were “capable to work but with misery” and those who were “able to conduct personal affairs” (or: 9.60, 95% ci: 2.38-38.71 р=0.00). cancer treatment was a protective factor from pain experience (or: 0.87, 95% ci: 0.37-2.05 р=0.76). 62.70% of the pain group were in the advanced stage and had a 2.18-fold higher risk of pain compared to patients who were in the primary stage (ci: 1.02-4.65). patients who took more painkillers had less pain control (54.41%) (or_ analgesic: 3.07, or_ opium: 12.11 and or_ multiple drugs: 8.97). conclusion: although pain could be relieved in most cancer cases, more than 50% of patients showed uncontrolled pain. understanding patients’ desires and past experiences of disease and the collaboration of medical, radiation and surgical oncologists with palliative care nursing and psychological specialties in multidisciplinary teams is urgent to solve the miss-treatment of cancer pain.