[A mechanism based understanding of cancer pain and development of novel strategies of cancer pain treatment].
As advances in cancer detection and treatment have increased the life expectancy of cancer patients, more attention to improving patient quality of life is needed. The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed a structured approach to drug selection for cancer pain, known as the "WHO analgesic ladder". This approach is capable of providing adequate relief to 70-90% of patients. However, the remaining 10-30% of patients are difficult to treat. The development of optimal analgesics for cancer pain has been hampered by the lack of understanding of basic mechanisms that contribute to cancer pain, which is due in part to the lack of appropriate animal models. Recently, preclinical models of bone cancer pain have been developed. These models have begun to provide insight into the mechanisms by which tumors cause pain and how cancer pain-related sensory information is processed. Once the mechanism by which cancer induces pain is elucidated, this would lead to the identification of molecular targets and the development of mechanism based therapies, which improve the quality of life of all those who suffer from cancer pain.