Pain, the most frequent subjective symptom in
cancer patients, can and must be treated. Satisfactory
pain relief helps whatever patients achieve their remaining potential. This transforms his experience and the memories of his family. Management of
pain becomes the physician's primary objective if there is no available treatment for the cause of
pain. The use of
analgesic drugs is the mainstay in
cancer pain management. When used correctly,
analgesics are effective in a high percentage of
cancer patients. This approach can be implemented in all medical settings and serves to improve quality of life in far-advanced
cancer patients. A three-step
analgesic ladder indicating the sequential use of the drugs was proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1986. The three standard
analgesics making up this ladder are
aspirin (non-
opioid),
codeine (weak
opioid) and
morphine (strong
opioid). In patients with mild
pain, non-
opioid drugs such as
aspirin,
acetaminophen, or any of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs will be adequate. In patients with moderate
pain, if non-
opioids do not provide adequate relief,
codeine or an alternative weak
opioid should be prescribed. In patients with severe
pain,
morphine, a strong
opioid, is the
drug of choice. A series of principles established on the basis of considerable clinical experience and of controlled studies of
analgesics indicate that the dose of an
analgesic should be determined on an individual basis, and administered on a regular basis by the clock.