Pain management in patients with pancreatic cancer : analysis of supportive care practices at the Oran university hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most feared cancer across the globe du to bad prognosis, which is partly the result of the absence of specific symptoms which prevents early detection, as well as fast tumor growth, often leading to patients experiencing severe pain that influences their survival, which means that there is important palliative care measure to take. Objective : The goal of this descriptive retrospective study is to review clinical signs with an emphasis on pain and to establish a correlation between pain relief and the improvement of overall survival in pancreatic cancer patients. Methods : For the duration of the study, 50 patients were included that were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and admitted to the medical oncology unit at the Oran University Hospital Establishment. Results : This study comports 50 patients with a median age of 63.32 years, a sex ratio of 1.38 and a masculine dominance at 58 % The most common presenting complaint is pain, which is correlated with poor prognosis since it indicates neural compromise. Regarding pain relief, the majority of patients began analgesic drug therapy at the moment of admission. A net augmentation of the survival rate was observed when administering third step analgesic drugs. Conclusion : The improvement of overall survival after medicating to relive pain sheds light on the good that palliative care can bring to the medical care in pancreatic cancer patients and the hope that, with the right resources we could significantly improve the lives of these patients.