New Advances in Cancer Pain Management in Taiwan

Abstract. Good clinical care of pain can prevent or alleviate suffering for many cancer patients by assessing pain and providing intervention to the patients at each visit in clinic or every day dur-ing admission. A guideline for the clinical practice of cancer pain management was established by the Taiwan Cooperative Oncology Group (TCOG) before the end of 2007. The purpose of this guideline is to present the algorithm to improve the care of pain for all cancer patients in Taiwan. Preventing and treating pain; ensuring the continuity of pain management; ensuring respect for persons and informed decision making; attending to well-being; and supporting function are general issues in this guideline. The TCOG Clinical Practice Guideline of Cancer Pain Management is based on pain assessments, utilizes both pharmacologic and nonpharma-cologic interventions, and requires continual reevaluation of the patient. The Clinical Practice Guideline of Cancer Pain Management by TCOG Panel believes that cancer pain can be well controlled in the vast majority of patients if the algorithms are systematically applied, carefully monitored, and tailored to the needs of the individual patient. The target audience for this guideline is all clinical professionals caring for cancer patients. Integration of this guideline into clinical practice is suggested to reduce the incidence of suffering from cancer pain.