Background:The chronic cancer pain has been considered one of the most distressing symptoms which has frustrated the patients and families not only in the treatment effectiveness field but also on the economic level. Adequate pain management was also regarded as an efficient way comprised of the following factors, including correct conceptions about the use of drugs commonly used to treat cancer pain, and timely communication between patients and clinicians, in addition to the formal assessment procedures and real-time follow-up.
Aim:To investigat the feasibility to make the clinical intervention for cancer pain more effective with the help of intelligent pain management system (PIMS), developed by Shanghai Xinhua Translational Institute for Cancer Pain.
Methods:120 patients with cancer pain symptom from the Oncology Center of Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Chongming Branch were randomly assigned into two groups (trial and control groups). For the trial group PIMS was used to collect the data about cancer pain assessment, whereas the conventional methods were used for control group to follow-up，for instance, telephone or door to door visit.
Results:During the 90 days’ follow-up, for the trial group, pain controlled days were 49.73 ± 2.54, which was siginificantly longer than that (37.00 ± 2.33) for the control group (p < 0.001). Moreover, the frequency of daily breakthrough pain was 2.98 ± 0.13 times for the trial group, which was significantly lower than that for the control group (4.10 ± 0.11, p < 0.001).
Conclusions:The utilisation of the PIMS for collecting the data about cancer pain assessment resulted in improved life quality of patients with cancer pain symptom，and may throw light upon the cancer pain treatment as well as the palliative care method.