ABSTRACT
This chapter considers all the patient's symptoms and all the information available to doctors and assesses the symptoms, signs and information given using this to choose the appropriate remedies for the problem, and offers extra information where available and appropriate. Pain is more than just the physical component, and needs to be assessed with regard to all of its aspects and presentations. Pain may be due to many causes other than malignancy. Arthritis still causes pain, even when cancer is present, but it is easy to overlook other causes of pain and focus on the cancer as the sole cause. Most patients who have pain associated with advanced cancer experience multiple pains. Several studies have demonstrated an average of different pains in many patients, and four in a significant percentage. The position of each pain should be recorded, and the severity of each should be documented.
