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Abstract

Malignant pain from within the thoracic cavity may originate from primary or metastatic neoplasms involving the lungs, heart, esophagus, and neural structures such as the brachial plexus and intercostal nerves, osseous structures, or lymph nodes. Systemic analgesic therapy including opioids has the potential to provide significant pain relief in this population. However, some patients may fail to achieve meaningful pain relief or suffer from unbearable medication- related adverse side effects. In this subset of patients, interventional pain management techniques targeting the intercostal nerves, thoracic nerve roots, and/or neuroaxis can offer additional palliation when more conventional methods of pain control have failed.

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Hung, J.C., Shah, R., Gulati, A. (2019). Thoracic Cancer Pain. 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_10

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