Cancer: Pain and Palliative Approach

Cancer has been known since human society first recorded their activities. It was well known to the
ancient Egyptians and to succeeding civilizations but, as most cancers developed in the latter
decades of life, until the expectation of life began to increase from the middle of the nineteenth
century onwards, the number of people surviving to this age was relatively small. Now that the
infectious diseases, the major causes of death in the past, have been controlled by improvements in
public health and medical care, the proportion of the population at risk of cancer has increased
dramatically. Although diseases of the heart and blood vessels are still the main cause of death in our
ageing population, cancer is now a major problem. At least one in three will develop cancer and one
in four men and one in five women will die from it. For this reason, cancer prevention and control are
major health issues. However, cancer research has wider significance. Cancer is not confined to man
and the higher mammals but affects almost all multicellular organisms, plants as well as animals