Development of clinical recommendations to improve the care of people living with chronic pain as a long term or late effect of cancer and its treatment
Development of clinical recommendations to improve the care of people living with chronic pain as a long term or late effect of cancer and its treatment
BACKGROUND: Chronic pain is a common side effect of cancer treatment and is frequently cited as a top concern and unmet need for cancer survivors. This paper outlines the development of clinical recommendations to better support people with chronic pain as a long-term or late side effect of cancer and its treatment.
METHOD: Evidence was identified from empirical research, and new insights from cancer survivors (
n = 19) and healthcare professionals (
n = 135), with findings informing draft clinical recommendations. These recommendations were reviewed and refined within online stakeholder engagement events, which comprised Phase 1 researcher review (
n = 5) and Phase 2 Expert Review Panels (four groups and two one-to-one discussions). Membership of expert panels included cancer survivors living with chronic pain after cancer, and clinical, research, and education experts (
n = 16). Data generated from Expert Review Panels were analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS: There was shared opinion among stakeholders that the recommendations would be beneficial in this setting, the recommendations reflected the evidence and the complexity of implementation was acknowledged. Validating cancer survivors' experiences of chronic pain was seen as essential to best practice and the importance of informed patients and healthcare professionals making good decisions together was recognised.
CONCLUSIONS: Resultant clinical recommendations are summarised as:
PAINS:
Prepare and inform,
Acknowledge and listen,
Increase healthcare professional knowledge,
Name and diagnose, and
Services and supported self-management interventions. Implementation strategies and future research are proposed.
cancer late effects pain, cancer pain, cancer related pain, chronic pain, guidelines, qualitative, quantitative, recommendations
Armoogum, Julie
3c716cea-c448-4e44-bc8b-82e7cb8e5209
Llewellyn, Alison
55a5ade7-c203-4ec7-95b9-6caee14b1127
Foster, Claire
00786ac1-bd47-4aeb-a0e2-40e058695b73
Harcourt, Diana
55ef847a-3539-4fa1-a499-4b62bd439806
Hepburn, Julie
90b5b91c-fa7b-4e9f-afc8-ac1d4f2fd0c6
Prior, Micheal
4d9bd909-b024-4dd9-9240-b7c75f6450a5
McCabe, Candida
24fda36b-16ad-42e1-a7eb-2ba306d5c438
Armoogum, Julie
3c716cea-c448-4e44-bc8b-82e7cb8e5209
Llewellyn, Alison
55a5ade7-c203-4ec7-95b9-6caee14b1127
Foster, Claire
00786ac1-bd47-4aeb-a0e2-40e058695b73
Harcourt, Diana
55ef847a-3539-4fa1-a499-4b62bd439806
Hepburn, Julie
90b5b91c-fa7b-4e9f-afc8-ac1d4f2fd0c6
Prior, Micheal
4d9bd909-b024-4dd9-9240-b7c75f6450a5
McCabe, Candida
24fda36b-16ad-42e1-a7eb-2ba306d5c438
Armoogum, Julie, Llewellyn, Alison, Foster, Claire, Harcourt, Diana, Hepburn, Julie, Prior, Micheal and McCabe, Candida
(2025)
Development of clinical recommendations to improve the care of people living with chronic pain as a long term or late effect of cancer and its treatment.
British Journal of Pain, [20494637251389064].
(doi:10.1177/20494637251389064).
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Chronic pain is a common side effect of cancer treatment and is frequently cited as a top concern and unmet need for cancer survivors. This paper outlines the development of clinical recommendations to better support people with chronic pain as a long-term or late side effect of cancer and its treatment.
METHOD: Evidence was identified from empirical research, and new insights from cancer survivors (
n = 19) and healthcare professionals (
n = 135), with findings informing draft clinical recommendations. These recommendations were reviewed and refined within online stakeholder engagement events, which comprised Phase 1 researcher review (
n = 5) and Phase 2 Expert Review Panels (four groups and two one-to-one discussions). Membership of expert panels included cancer survivors living with chronic pain after cancer, and clinical, research, and education experts (
n = 16). Data generated from Expert Review Panels were analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS: There was shared opinion among stakeholders that the recommendations would be beneficial in this setting, the recommendations reflected the evidence and the complexity of implementation was acknowledged. Validating cancer survivors' experiences of chronic pain was seen as essential to best practice and the importance of informed patients and healthcare professionals making good decisions together was recognised.
CONCLUSIONS: Resultant clinical recommendations are summarised as:
PAINS:
Prepare and inform,
Acknowledge and listen,
Increase healthcare professional knowledge,
Name and diagnose, and
Services and supported self-management interventions. Implementation strategies and future research are proposed.
Text
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Accepted/In Press date: 27 September 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 October 2025
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Keywords:
cancer late effects pain, cancer pain, cancer related pain, chronic pain, guidelines, qualitative, quantitative, recommendations
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 506680
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/506680
ISSN: 2049-4637
PURE UUID: 363560fa-009c-4046-8032-d3c21152ba70
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Date deposited: 13 Nov 2025 17:52
Last modified: 14 Nov 2025 02:38
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Contributors
Author:
Julie Armoogum
Author:
Alison Llewellyn
Author:
Diana Harcourt
Author:
Julie Hepburn
Author:
Micheal Prior
Author:
Candida McCabe
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