Abstract

The purpose of this retrospective study is to characterize cancer, non-cancer and cancer survivor pain syndromes in patients who visited the Cancer Center-Based Palliative Medicine Outpatient Clinic at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Orlando (MDACCO). Charts of 190 patients were reviewed to identify demographics, primary and secondary diagnoses and pain assessment. The data was entered into Excel Spreadsheet and converted into SPSS for statistical analysis. Trends in the types of pain syndromes experienced by patients visiting the clinic were then identified. Back pain was the most common complaint, followed by limb and chest pain. Breast cancer was the most common diagnosis among females, while prostate and rectal cancer was most prevalent among males. There was a significant correlation between breast cancer and joint/bone pain (p<0.0028) which could be possibly explained by aromatase inhibitor induced arthralgia. A large subgroup (19.47%) of patients did not have a history of cancer at all, and their diagnoses were very diverse. More than half of these patients were African American and Hispanic suffering from sickle cells disease without crisis. Since the outpatient palliative clinic is an emerging clinical entity, there is no prior characterization of pain syndromes common to this kind of care setting in the medical literature. The results obtained from our project may be used to better tailor pain management for patients and help identify patients at risk for pain before it starts interfering with their function and quality of life.