Doctor, what should I do about the pain caused by gynecological tumors?

Cervical cancer is one of the three major gynecological malignant tumors. In recent years, celebrities such as Anita Mui and Li Yuanyuan have died of cervical cancer. Don’t you know that you should do gynecological maintenance every year?

For most patients with gynecological tumors, pain may be a problem they are more worried about during the course of their illness. Many patients are afraid of pain and will become very nervous once pain occurs.

Patients with gynecological tumors, especially those with malignant gynecological tumors, may experience pain during the course of their disease. The cause of this pain may be related to the tumor itself, such as direct invasion and compression of local tissues, metastasis, etc.; it may be caused by anti-tumor related treatments, such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, etc.; it may also be related to non-tumor factors, including other comorbidities, complications, and social and psychological factors of the patient.

The pain caused by tumors varies greatly among individuals, but it will have a certain impact on the patient's psychology and physiology, as well as the patient's family and society. Therefore, active treatment is necessary to control the pain. Effective tumor pain treatment is not a simple analgesic treatment, but a comprehensive treatment that includes etiology treatment, pain treatment, and psychological treatment.

For symptomatic treatment of pain, drug therapy follows the three-step pain treatment plan recommended by WHO. For pain treatment of patients with gynecological tumors, the principles of step-by-step administration, oral administration, scheduled administration and individualized administration can be followed. For refractory pain, the Department of Pain Medicine has achieved good results in minimally invasive interventional treatment of tumor pain. Optional treatments include nerve block, patient-controlled pump therapy, nerve damage, intrathecal drug implantation pump, etc.

Author: Zhu Meijuan, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

About the Author

Zhu Meijuan

Master of Medicine. Department of Pain Medicine, Renji Clinical Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.

Treatment direction: Clinical diagnosis and treatment of chronic soft tissue pain, neck, shoulder, waist and leg pain, postherpetic neuralgia, advanced cancer pain, etc.

Clinic hours: Renji Hospital (East Branch) Pain Department, Thursday (morning and afternoon)

Funded by Shanghai Science and Technology Commission's Science Popularization Project

(Project No.: 20DZ2311100)