Treatment of chronic cancer pain in urologic patients

Cancer pain remains a significant clinical problem worldwide. Cancer pain causes are multifactorial and complex and varying with a variety of factors and processes related both to the tumor process and to the host itself. Even though the quality of pharmacologic pain management has improved in the last decades, 1 in 3 patients do not receive pain medication appropriate for the intensity of experienced pain. Chronic cancer pain in urologic patients has different traits, since this carcinoma might originate from various organ:, prostate, kidneys, adrenal glands, urinary bladder or the penis. Urogenital neoplasm very often metastasized into the bones (spine, pelvis and head bones) and they are associated with pathological fractures, hypercalcemia, and neurological deficits, which lead to a significant reduction in quality of life. Pain induced by bone metastases is nociceptive pain, but may also be associated with neuropathic pain if the tumor performs compression or invasion of the nerve, spinal cord or nerve plexus. In 70-90% of urological cancer patients pain can be adequately relieved by consistent adherence to the WHO cancer pain recommendations. However, additional pain relief therapies, such as radiation and psychosocial treatment of these patients have to be considered.