Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage (International Association for the Study of Pain, 2020). It is experienced by approximately two-thirds of patients with advanced cancer, and also affects many patients experiencing non-malignant terminal illnesses. It may be caused by the disease or its complications, treatments or comorbidities.
Pain
I'm Dr Jessica Lee, I'm a PhD candidate at IMPACCT University of Technology Sydney. Palliative Care is about providing the best care possible to people who have a life-limiting illness, to help them live as long as possible, as well as possible.
We have a wide variety of professionals within our team, including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, and the list goes on.
We work together to ensure that our patients receive the best care possible.
Clinical trials are essential in Palliative Care, to ensure that our patients receive effective management and and optimal management.
By conducting clinical trials for Palliative Care patients, we can ensure that we know exactly what is the right treatment for our patient who is in front of us.
We know that pain is a major problem worldwide, both cancer pain and non-cancer pain, and despite a wide variety of therapies,
There remains a portion of people who have unrelieved cancer pain, and unrelieved other types of pain, which limit their quality of life, their function, their wellbeing, and their ability to fully participate in society.
It’s really important that we conduct research into improving cancer pain for people, because this will allow them to ensure that they have the best quality of life possible.
Effective pain management relies on thorough clinical assessment and includes pharmacological, non-pharmacological, spiritual and psychological aspects, leading to improved quality of life for patients and their carers. Further research in this area is needed to ensure that all patients receive appropriate pain assessment and effective management while minimising adverse effects.
Reference: Raja, Srinivasa N.; Carr, Daniel B.; Cohen, Milton; Finnerup, Nanna B.; Flor, Hertaf; Gibson, Stephen; Keefe, Francis J.; Mogil, Jeffrey S.; Ringkamp, Matthias; Sluka, Kathleen A.; Song, Xue-Jun; Stevens, Bonnie; Sullivan, Mark D.; Tutelman, Perri R.; Ushida, Takahiro; Vader, Kyle. The revised International Association for the Study of Pain definition of pain, PAIN: May 23, 2020 - Volume Articles in Press - Issue - doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001939
Research program
The Pain SNSC works collaboratively to support a range of research initiatives and to facilitate active research idea development. Currently, this symptom node encompasses Rapid program series for NSAIDS and methadone conversion, in addition to systematic reviews on cancer pain and its treatment.
Phase II and III studies for the assessment and management of cancer pain are in development, including LICpain (continuous sub-cutaneous lidocaine infusions), the role of virtual reality in pain management, and the DEPART Pain study (duloxetine versus pregabalin for neuropathic cancer pain).
Our goal is to progress research that will reduce symptom burden and improve quality of life for people with life-limiting illnesses.
The Pain Node welcomes membership applications and new concept ideas from health professionals and researchers from Australia and New Zealand with an interest in pain research in palliative care.
Interested in finding out more? To express your interest in joining the Pain SNSC, email paccsc@uts.edu.au (palliative interest) or cst@uts.edu.au (cancer symptom interest).
Subcommittee Chair
Professor Melanie Lovell is a palliative care physician and is the Medical Head of HammondCare's palliative care services in Northern Sydney. She is Clinical Associate Professor in Palliative Care at The University of Sydney Northern Clinical School and Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney.
Her research interests are in cancer pain, spirituality and translational research. She was the founding Chair of the Australian Cancer Pain Management guidelines on the Cancer Council Australia's wiki platform and leads the Cancer Pain Research Group at HammondCare.
Melanie is a member of the PaCCSC and CST Trials Management Committee and the IMPACCT (including PaCCSC) Scientific Advisory Committee. She is also on the Executive Committee of the Sydney Vital Translational Research Centre. She is widely published and contributes professionally on the Executive of the Sydney Institute of Palliative Medicine and the Royal College of Physicians Spirituality Training Curriculum Working Group.
