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Pain in Hematologic Malignancies

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Essentials of Interventional Cancer Pain Management
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Abstract

Hematologic malignancies (HTM) or blood-related cancers (BRC) include leukemia (acute or chronic), lymphomas, and plasma cell disorders. HTM are generally less common than solid tumors, but can be associated with substantial symptom burden, including several pain syndromes, some of which are unique to these conditions. During the course of HTM, pain can be induced by the disease itself, by the diagnostic procedures, or by the different treatment modalities. Pain can also occur from disease-associated complications, secondary to iatrogenic causes, or even at times may be due to unrelated clinical conditions.

In patients with BRC, pain may be the presenting symptom at disease onset, and this kind of pain generally responds with initiation of treatment. Patients under active treatment can report iatrogenic pains of short or long duration. Survivors on the other hand can experience chronic pain due to treatment-related complication or residual post treatment of the disease itself. In patients with advanced, incurable/refractory disease distressing pain symptoms should be managed in context of comprehensive end of life care.

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Correspondence to Kanu Sharan .

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Sharan, K. (2019). Pain in Hematologic Malignancies. In: Gulati, A., Puttanniah, V., Bruel, B., Rosenberg, W., Hung, J. (eds) Essentials of Interventional Cancer Pain Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99684-4_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99684-4_14

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