Background. Lung cancer is the most common malignant neoplasm among men and the second one in women. The main goal of palliative treatment of lung cancer is the reduction of pain complaints connected with its progression: cough, haemoptysis and superior caval vein syndrome. Palliative care is performed in the form of (private) home care as well as in-patient (infirmary) care. The aim of this research was to assess neoplastic pain in patients suffered from lung cancer who underwent palitive care.
Materials and methods. Research was conducted in the st. Jerzy Hospice in Elbl¹g and in st. Wawrzyniec Hospice in Gdynia, from January to March, 2006 and questionnaire survey method were used. The group of 50 persons at age range from 45 to 85 years with lung cancer were analyzed. Patients were undergone private and infirmary palliative care. Analog-visual scale was used for pain assessment.
Results and conclusions. The largest group were patients above 60 years old with lung cancer. In those patients metastases were located mostly in the brain. The pain score was 6.2 points in patients receiving private care and 5.4 points in patients receiving infirmary care. Pain was localized most frequently in the chest, spine and head. Sudden and increasing during moving pains were dominant form of pain. After treatment pain decreased to 2.6 points in private care patients and 1.6 points in infirmary care patients. Analgetics which have been used most frequently were strong opioids. Unfortunately, they caused side effects, especially constipation in about half of patients. The dose of analgetics was sufficient for 86% of patients. For many patients in private care the main source of support was their families. Most patients gained support from priest but only 9% gained support from psychologist. Pain control was sufficient for most patients.