Any diagnosis of cancer brings with it the certainty of pain, and mesothelioma is no exception. As the disease progresses, trauma to internal organs can lead to tremendous pain for the patient. Add to this the typical difficulty in breathing, nausea and other gastrointestinal effects due to radiation and chemotherapy – as well as the psychological pain caused by mesothelioma – and pain management for mesothelioma can quickly become one of the most challenging parts of caring for those with the disease. Any diagnosis of cancer brings with it the certainty of pain, and mesothelioma is no exception.
As the disease progresses, trauma to internal organs can lead to tremendous pain for the patient. Add to this the typical difficulty in breathing, nausea and other gastrointestinal effects due to radiation and chemotherapy – as well as the psychological pain caused by mesothelioma – and pain management for mesothelioma can quickly become one of the most challenging parts of caring for those with the disease.
In the early stages of mesothelioma, pain can be soothed by over-the-counter analgesics, such as aspirin, ibuprofen and the like. However, the disease is typically very aggressive and quickly begins to cause pain in excess of what such analgesics can relieve.
In later stages, only powerful opiate drugs (e.g., morphine, oxycodone, etc.) are strong enough to make the pain tolerable, especially if the patient is experiencing pain due to bowel obstruction or other side effects of the disease or its treatment. Epidural administration of painkillers by means of a catheter inserted directly into the patient’s spinal cord is the most powerful form of palliative care for mesothelioma, and is generally reserved for patients in the final stages of the disease.
