Support for People with Cancer: Pain Control

Having cancer doesn’t mean that you’ll have pain. But if you do, you can manage
most of your pain with medicine and other treatments.

This booklet will show you how to work with your doctors, nurses, and others to find the best way to control your pain. It will discuss causes of pain, medicines, how to talk to your doctor, and other topics that may help you.

The key messages we want you to learn from this booklet are:
-Your pain can be managed.
-Controlling pain is part of your cancer treatment.
-Talking openly with your doctor and health care team will help them manage your pain.
-The best way to control pain is to stop it from starting or keep it from getting worse.
-There are many different medicines to control pain. Everyone’s pain control plan is different.
-Keeping a record of your pain will help create the best pain control plan for you.
-People who take cancer pain medicines as prescribed rarely become addicted to them.
-Your body does not become immune to pain medicine. Stronger medicines should not be saved for “later.”