Cancer Pain: What Does It Feel Like

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What Does It Feel Like?

The type of cancer pain you feel depends on the type of cancer you have and how it affects your body. For example:

• Deep, aching pain. A tumor that presses on your bones or grows into your bones can cause deep, aching pain. Bone pain is the most common type of cancer pain.
• Burning pain. A tumor that presses on a nerve can cause a burning feeling. Sometimes chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery damages nerves and causes burning pain. Nerve pain is the second most common type of cancer pain.
• Phantom pain. Pain that is felt in the area where an arm or a breast has been removed is phantom pain. Although the body part is gone, nerve endings at the site still send pain signals to the brain. The brain thinks the body part is still there.

Acute pain is bad pain that lasts a short time. Chronic pain is pain that comes and goes for a long time. It is a side effect of the cancer or treatment. Chronic pain can range from mild to severe.

Not everyone feels pain in the same way. Only you can describe how much pain you have. The key to getting your pain under control is being able to tell your doctor what it feels like and what does and doesn't work for you.

Last updated:	October 30, 2007
Author:	Shannon Erstad, MBA/MPH
Reviewed By:	Anne C. Poinier, MD - Internal Medicine, Michael Seth Rabin, MD - Medical Oncology
Editors:	Kathleen M. Ariss, MS, Pat Truman, MATC