Cancer Pain ManagementWith improved treatments for cardiovascular and infectious diseases, life expectancy is increasing. For this reason and environmental factors, the incidence and prevalence of cancer is rising worldwide. Pain and overall symptom burden remains problematic for cancer patients. Unrelieved pain leads to increased morbidity through multiple mechanisms: decrease in functional status with increased sedentary related complications such as deep venous thrombosis and pneumonia; depression, anxiety, and an associated lack of compliance with recommended treatments, including in some cases the inability to complete treatment protocols, and other adverse sequela. Studies show around 30 % of ambulatory cancer patients suffering moderate to severe pain. With progressive disease, the incidence is far higher. Breakthrough pain or episodic severe pain is often quite problematic for cancer patients.