Use of Goals in Cancer Pain Management: A Systematic Review

Cancer pain is multidimensional and management should be individualized to patient goals. The current standard for pain goal assessment is the personal pain goal (PPG), a numeric rating for tolerable pain intensity. However, the PPG may not accurately capture a personally meaningful goal for tailoring pain management.

Identify how pain goals are used in cancer pain management and types of goals researched.

CINAHL, PsychInfo, and PubMed databases and manual searching were used to locate research or scholarship about cancer pain goals. Authors reviewed titles, abstracts and full text to agree on the final sample.

Sixteen articles met inclusion criteria. Study designs included: quality improvement project (1), concept analysis (1), qualitative methods (5), quantitative methods (8), and mixed methods (1). Findings included: goal setting as a key attribute of pain management; achieving personal goals as the outcome of pain management work; qualitative themes discussed personal goals related to pain management; developing a patient pain management resource including a SMART goal; using motivational interviewing to set functional pain goals; PPG assessment was feasible; and achieving PPG equated to having controlled pain when compared to the clinically important difference measure used in research (≥30%). Quantitative studies reported on PPGs only.

Currently, assessments for cancer pain goals do not include function, activities, moods, medication effects, or safety that patients wish to achieve as a pain management outcome. Development and testing of multidimensional patient pain goals assessments is warranted so that goals can be consistently assessed, documented, and personally meaningful.