Pharmacotherapy of pain in cancer patients - recommendations of the Polish Association for the Study of Pain, Polish Society of Palliative Medicine, Polish Society of Oncology, Polish Society of Family Medicine, Polish Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy and Association of Polish Surgeons.

Guidelines for the pharmacotherapy of pain in cancer patients were developed by a group of 21 experts of the Polish Association for the Study of Pain, Polish Society of Palliative Medicine, Polish Society of Oncology, Polish Society of Family Medicine, Polish Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy and Association of Polish Surgeons. During a series of meetings, the experts carried out an overview of the available literature on the treatment of pain in cancer patients, paying particular attention to systematic reviews and more recent randomized studies not included in the reviews. The search was performed in the EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases using such keywords as "pain", "cancer", "pharmacotherapy", "analgesics", and similar.