Mechanism-based Classification and Physical Therapy Management of Persons with Cancer Pain: A Prospective Case Series

Mechanism-based classification (MBC) was established with current evidence and physical therapy (PT) management methods for both cancer and for noncancer pain.

This study aims to describe the efficacy of MBC-based PT in persons with primary complaints of cancer pain.

A prospective case series of patients who attended the physiotherapy department of a multispecialty university-affiliated teaching hospital.

A total of 24 adults (18 female, 6 male) aged 47.5 ± 10.6 years, with primary diagnosis of heterogeneous group of cancer, chief complaints of chronic disabling pain were included in the study on their consent for participation The patients were evaluated and classified on the basis of five predominant mechanisms for pain. Physical therapy interventions were recommended based on mechanisms identified and home program was prescribed with a patient log to ensure compliance. Treatments were given in five consecutive weekly sessions for five weeks each of 30 min duration.

Pre-post comparisons for pain severity (PS) and pain interference (PI) subscales of Brief pain inventory-Cancer pain (BPI-CP) and, European organization for research and treatment in cancer-quality of life questionnaire (EORTC-QLQ-C30) were done using Wilcoxon signed-rank test at 95% confidence interval using SPSS for Windows version 16.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL).

There were statistically significant (P < 0.05) reduction in pain severity, pain interference and total BPI-CP scores, and the EORTC-QLQ-C30.

MBC-PT was effective for improving BPI-CP and EORTC-QLQ-C30 scores in people with cancer pain.