Cancer pain as a meaningful aspect of the oncological treatment

Introduction and objective: Pain is the most common and universal symptom among all patients with the oncological disease. Pain significantly reduces the quality of life, hinders decent functioning, and plays a significant role in the deterioration of the mental health of the patient and his close relatives. The study aimed to discuss the mainstreaming of effective pain treatment and to review various assessments and scales (including Brief Pain Inventory, Illness Perception Questionnaire and Numeric Rating Scale) concerning the psychological aspect of pain in selected neoplastic diseases.State of knowledge: We can distinguish various treatments for pain that can be divided into pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods. Latest studies revealed that pain treatment appears to be more and more meaningful. Various factors might influence pain perception and response to the applied treatment. Among all malignancies, special attention is paid to the pain issue in following cancers: colon cancer, gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer, that were described in this paper. Conclusions: Effective pain relief presents a positive effect, both on the physical and mental state of the patient. It also helps to maintain calm mental health among relatives. Nowadays, integration of the best methods for pain relief that are characterized as humanitarian, easily accessible and effective, seems to be one of the biggest challenges for both oncological and palliative health workers.