Indian society for study of pain, cancer pain special interest group guidelines on palliative care aspects in cancer pain management

The Indian Society for Study of Pain (ISSP), Cancer Pain Special Interest Group guidelines on palliative care aspects in cancer pain in adults provide a structured, stepwise approach which will help to improve the management of cancer pain and to provide the patients with a minimally acceptable quality of life. The guidelines have been developed based on the available literature and evidence, to suit the needs, patient population, and situations in India. A questionnaire based on the key elements of each sub draft addressing certain inconclusive areas where evidence was lacking was made available on the ISSP website and circulated by E-mail to all the ISSP and Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) members. In a cancer care setting, approaches toward managing pain vary between ambulatory setting, home care setting, acute inpatient setting, and end-of-life care in hospice setting. We aim to expound the cancer pain management approaches in these settings. In an ambulatory palliative care setting, the WHO analgesic step ladder is used for cancer pain management. The patients with cancer pain require admission for acute inpatient palliative care unit for poorly controlled pain in ambulatory and home care settings, rapid opioid titration, titration of difficult drugs such as methadone, acute pain crisis, pain neuromodulation, and pain interventions. In a palliative home care setting, the cancer pain is usually assessed and managed by nurses and primary physicians with a limited input from the specialist physicians. In patients with cancer at the end of life, the pain should be assessed at least once a day. Moreover, physicians should be trained in assessing patients with pain who are unable to verbalize or have cognitive impairment.