Onkológia 1/2017

Nonopioid analgesics and adjuvants in treatment of cancer pain

More than two thirds of cancer patients experience a pain, which during the primary illness progresses from moderate to severe. The pain appears not only due to the presence of a tumour, but also because of anti-cancer treatment, after diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, due to metastasis and in the terminal stage of cancer. Treatment of cancer pain is based on three stages of analgesics in the WHO scale - depending on the intensity of pain. Adjuvants are defined as drugs, whose primary indication is not treatment of pain, however, in certain circumstances, they do have an analgesic effect. There are no recommendations for the use of adjuvants in the treatment of cancer pain. In the selection of the optimal adjuvant, we have to take in mind the character and intensity of pain, the profile of its side effects, co-medications and the risks interactions with other analgesics.

Keywords: cancer pain, WHO analgesic ladder, nonopioid analgesics, adjuvant analgesics