Pain can be a symptom of lung cancer and a side effect of treatment. If pain is not controlled, it can affect your quality of life and how you cope with treatments.
Learn more about:
Ways to manage pain
There are different ways to control pain. Aside from pain medicines, various procedures can manage any build-up of fluid that is causing pain. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy can reduce pain by shrinking a lung tumour. Surgery may help treat pain from bones: for example, if the cancer has spread to the spine and is pressing on nerves (nerve compression).
Tips for coping with pain
- Tell your doctor when you are in pain so they can help you manage it. A palliative care or pain specialist may be able to help with hard- to-manage pain.
- Keep track of your pain in a diary – note what the pain feels like, how intense it is, where it comes from and travels to, how long it lasts and if it goes away with a specific medicine or another therapy such as a heat pack.
- Allow a few days for your body to adjust to the dose of pain medicine and for drowsiness to improve.
- Take pain medicine regularly as prescribed, even when you are not in pain. It’s better to stay on top of the pain.
- Use a laxative regularly to prevent or relieve constipation caused by pain medicines.
- Learn relaxation or meditation techniques to help you cope with pain.
For more on this, see Cancer pain and listen to our Managing Cancer Pain podcast episode.
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Podcast: Managing Cancer Pain
Listen to more episodes from our podcast for people affected by cancer
Dr Malinda Itchins, Thoracic Medical Oncologist, Royal North Shore Hospital and Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, NSW; Dr Cynleen Kai, Radiation Oncologist, GenesisCare, VIC; Dr Naveed Alam, Thoracic Surgeon, St Vincent’s Hospital, Epworth Richmond, and Monash Medical Centre, VIC; Helen Benny, Consumer; Dr Rachael Dodd, Senior Research Fellow, The Daffodil Centre, NSW; Kim Greco, Specialist Lung Cancer Nurse Consultant, Flinders Medical Centre, SA; Caitriona Nienaber, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council WA; Marco Salvador, Consumer; Janene Shelton, Lung Foundation Australia – Specialist Lung Cancer Nurse, Darling Downs Health, QLD; Prof Emily Stone, Respiratory Physician, Department of Thoracic Medicine and Lung Transplantation, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, NSW; A/Prof Marianne Weber, Stream Lead, Lung Cancer Policy and Evaluation, The Daffodil Centre, NSW.
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