[The study of cancer pain and its correlates]

From August 1989 to December 1990, we collected 1523 cases of malignancy at Tri-service General Hospital (TSGH), and 470 cases (30.9%) of these malignancy had pain complaint. Moreover, we found that 68.1% (79/116 cases) of malignancy with bony metastasis had pain complaint. These informations were obtained from medical records. By counting the site of these 1523 cases, the leading sites in sequence were lung (207 cases), stomach (164 cases), cervix uteri (132 cases), breast (117 cases) and colon (91 cases). Regarding the incidence of cancer pain among these malignancy, bone cancer had the highest incidence (75.0%), followed by tongue (66.7%), brain (65.7%), liver (62.3%) and pancreas (60.0%). There was no difference of the incidence of cancer pain between male and female. The incidences of cancer pain in different age groups were different; the young patients had higher incidence than elderly patients. The analgesics for cancer pain used most frequently by physicians at TSGH were nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs and meperidine. Although the therapeutic management of cancer pain has been advancedly developed, we found that the treatments of cancer pain by physicians at TSGH were not aggressive enough. Therefore, promotion of the concept in advanced pain control and techniques is our important task in the near future.