Interview With
Kathleen Foley "In recent years, the most important change for patients is that pain is now recognized as another vital sign" 
|
|
|
Memorial Sloan-Kettering was the first cancer center in the United States to have an interdisciplinary service devoted specifically to treating pain in cancer patients.
Here, pain experts continue to pioneer the use of new drugs and novel methods of drug delivery. Allied interventions such as cognitive-behavioral approaches and relaxation are also used.
The Science of Cancer Pain Management
Over the past two decades, Memorial Sloan-Kettering staff have led the evolution of guidelines for cancer pain management based on rigorous laboratory and clinical research.
Our doctors helped develop the World Health Organization's three-step approach to cancer pain management and the US Agency for Health Care Policy and Research clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of cancer pain, both of which have been validated by large randomized clinical studies.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering continues to make significant contributions to the understanding and effective treatment of pain, including the following key areas of research:
- identifying pain syndromes specific to cancer patients
- tracing the neurologic mechanisms of pain, and the relationship of social and psychological factors with pain
- establishing accurate methods of pain assessment
- correlating levels of treatment with the pain relief they provide
