[What can we do for cancer patients with pain to go home]

When patients suffering from cancer pain wish to stay at home, the most important condition is to relieve the cancer pain. But it is not enough; decreasing the fear of pain is another important problem. From these viewpoints, we have tried to assist these patients to go home. In this paper we report two cases of 61-year-old and 57-year-old women with severe leg pain caused by pelvic recurrence of cancer of the uterus and rectum. At first, we needed high doses of morphine by intravenous administration all day long. To control their mental condition, we talked personally with them to understand their distress and asked them to put in writing anything about their anxiety in a special notebook. After that, we advised them on how to use anodyne, how to deal with side effects of the drugs and how to use various social services in their home. Then, after their cancer pain was controlled by radiotherapy and appropriate anodyne, they overcame their anxiety and at last they could go home.