Special Interest Group - Cancer-related Pain

To provide a forum for members of the British Pain Society with an interest in cancer-related pain.

Description of Activities and Scientific Focus

1. To increase awareness and promote education about cancer-related pain.
2. To provide a national and interdisciplinary forum for people interested in clinical and research questions on cancer-related pain.
3. To develop and promote best practice in the assessment and management of cancer-related pain.
4. To facilitate the development of collaborative research, education, and service improvement in cancer-related pain nationally and internationally.
5. To promote discussion and research on cancer-related pain, including:

• causes and mechanisms of pain in people with cancer
• assessment of cancer-related pain and its impact
• pharmacological and non-pharmacological management of pain
• treatment-related pain, including pain associated with surgery, radiotherapy, systemic treatments, and survivorship
• self-management approaches for patients and families

If you would like to join the Society to access the range of Special Interest Groups, please click here.

An introduction to the new BPS Cancer-related Pain SIG  

Pete Moore, Sam H Ahmedzai, Shafaq Sikandar, Martin Galligan, Larry Driver.  

The British Pain Society is proud to announce the formation in 2026, of a new Special Interest Group (SIG) dedicated to “Cancer-related Pain”. The wording of the title is critical: we know that pain can be experienced by patients who are living with and beyond cancer from three sources – from the malignant disease process directly, whether local or metastatic; as a side-effect of therapies, including the increasingly important group of ‘late effects’ which may emerge five or more years after treatment; or from co-morbidities, some of which are caused or aggravated by cancer therapies.  This aetiological understanding of pain in cancer was officially recognised in the ICD-11 classification of chronic pains.[1] Hence “cancer-related” is more comprehensive than “cancer pain” and reflects more realistically the different types of pain and their timing during the patient’s cancer journey. 

Many colleagues in the British Pain Society will be familiar with pain at two stages of the illness.  First, acute pain is experienced by around 36% of patients in the early period after diagnostic biopsies and curative surgery, which is usually mild and short-term, but which can be moderate-severe pain in about 23% and thus may affect daily living [2]. We know that in a subset of these patients, post-operative pain can become persistent and this may be associated with long term analgesic consumption, including opioids in the absence of a programme of early deprescribing. Recent advances in pre-clinical models have shed light on nociceptive mechanisms and suggest potential targeted therapies for some of these early stage pains, particularly arising from cancer chemotherapy drugs.[3] 

The other stage in which some BPS professionals encounter pain is when the cancer is advanced and progressive, which may lead to end of life.  Preclinical studies continue to elucidate the mechanisms underlying some of the most severe pain, when cancer spreads into the bones [4]. Sadly, so far this knowledge has not led to practical new therapeutic gains. We are fortunate that in the UK, access to good specialist palliative care (where available) and judicious use of interventional pain management, can alleviate most pain (but sadly not for all) in this phase of life. However, it is not clear if healthcare professionals’ knowledge and attitudes to cancer-related pain are keeping up with recent research.[5] 

However, the good news is that advances in the last 20 years with earlier diagnosis and improvements in surgery, radiotherapy and systemic anti-cancer therapies have drastically reduced the mortality rate from many of the cancer types. Whereas in the UK there are approximately 405,000 new cases of cancer every year, the death rate from all cancers is now around 170,00 per year.[6]  The gap in these numbers includes the rapidly increasing population of what we call ‘cancer survivors’.  Over half of cancer patients now survive at least five years after diagnosis, and 10% are alive 15-20 years after.[7] 

While a large part of these people can return to their previous lives and activities, for some, persistent pain after surgery and chemotherapy, or late-onset pain after radiotherapy and the newer immunomodulating therapies, can cause years of pain and disability.[1,8] Helping these patients – and their professional carers - to understand why they may have persistent or even new pains, sometimes emerging decades after they are declared  ‘clear’ of the original cancer, is one of the drivers behind our setting up the new Cancer-related Pain SIG. The SIG will highlight the growing body of research activity investigating underlying mechanisms of debilitating cancer pain. 

Summing this up, more than 3 million individuals in the UK are now living with a history of cancer, leading to hundreds of thousands grappling with acute pain leading to long-term pain resulting from the disease or therapies.  Many of these - especially older patients – will be living with comorbidity pain, but also young adults present with metabolic, bone and neurological damage resulting from curative childhood cancer treatment.[9] 

Recognising the urgent need for focused attention on these challenges, the Cancer-related Pain SIG aims to raise awareness of the prevalence of persistent pain and emphasize the importance of current effective therapies alongside supported self-management strategies. Our objectives are: 

1. To raise awareness and establish a discourse on cancer related pain within the BPS. The long term goal is for the Cancer-related Pain SIG to identify gaps in knowledge and to demonstrate progress in cancer care. 

1. Expertise and evidence. Our aim is to identify where we can improve expertise and infrastructure for optimal cancer pain care and identify existing or attainable evidence demonstrating successful cancer pain care approaches from bench-to-bedside-to-workforce. 

1. To define and identify models and examples of best practice for cancer-related pain management, especially where it is in the context of an integrated service covering oncology, palliative care and pain management. 

1. Education to increase engagement through the BPS and dissemination of patient-centred care, especially through supported self-management. 

In keeping with current models of chronic pain management, the SIG will encourage healthcare providers to offer their skills to patients at all stages of the illness, alongside teaching and supporting patients in essential self-management skills.  We aim to do this through a range of modalities and projects, including webinars, sessions and plenary speakers at ASMs, and data gathering on models of good practice. 

For the past year the team which has brought this new SIG to the point of its official launch in the 2026 ASM, consists of Pete Moore, a person living with longstanding chronic pain and now with cancer-related pain, who is a global expert on promoting supported self-management; Sam H Ahmedzai who worked for 30 years in palliative medicine, and latterly in supportive oncology for cancer survivors; Larry Driver, a USA member of BPS with a lifetime experience of delivering pain management in one of the world’s foremost cancer centres; Shafaq (Skip) Sikandar, basic scientist leading a laboratory on sensory neurophysiology including pre-clinical models of chronic pain and who is also a person living with cancer; Martin Galligan, a cancer specialist nurse at a UK leading cancer centre who is pursuing a PhD in cancer pain management.  

We pay tribute to our much loved and missed late BPS colleague Felicia (Flick) Cox who, as an acute pain nurse and person living for many years with recurrent cancer, experiencing and teaching about both acute and persistent pain, inspired us and would have been on our team today. 

We welcome BPS colleagues to take part in our programme of meetings and webinars starting in autumn 2026. 

“I have been living with persistent pain now for over 30 years. I attended the INPUT PMP in 1996 which provided me with life long Supported Self-management skills. In June of 2016 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and I was able to adapt and use those same PMP Supported Self-Management skills, to manage the new challenge in my life. I truly believe education about Supported Self-Management for both patients and healthcare providers, is the way forward.” Pete Moore, author of the Pain Toolkit 

“Being initially drawn into palliative medicine through my interest in cancer-related pain, for 40 years I have been correcting misconceptions and pursuing evidence-based approaches of medical management. The new SIG will allow BPS to adopt and share the best researched therapies and service models.” Emeritus Professor Sam H Ahmedzai 

“Cancer management has advanced considerably since the turn of the century, but we still face clinical challenges to manage cancer-related pain. This SIG will provide an important forum to share best practice, exchange emerging evidence and foster new discoveries to improve the lives of people with cancer pain.” Professor Shafaq Sikandar 

“Cancer-related pain sits at the intersection of many different healthcare services, and as a result,  those impacted by it risk falling between the gaps when trying to access support. I hope that this new SIG will help to improve access to vital support for those impacted by cancer-related pain and empower all healthcare professionals with the knowledge and confidence to care for those living with cancer-related pain.” Martin Galligan 

“Persistent pain from cancer or its treatment can impact quality of life long after diagnosis, with abundant opportunities to provide care and do research to help these patients. The activities of this SIG will help us all to collaborate effectively in order to help our patients.” Dr Larry Driver 

References 

1. Bennett MI, Kaasa S, Barke A, Korwisi B, Rief W, Treede RD; IASP Taskforce for the Classification of Chronic Pain. The IASP classification of chronic pain for ICD-11: chronic cancer-related pain. Pain. 2019 Jan;160(1):38-44. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001363. PMID: 30586069. 

1. Snijders RAH, Brom L, Theunissen M, van den Beuken-van Everdingen MHJ. Update on Prevalence of Pain in Patients with Cancer 2022: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Jan 18;15(3):591. doi: 10.3390/cancers15030591. PMID: 36765547; PMCID: PMC9913127 

1. Villalba-Riquelme E, Zhang C, Sikandar S, He Y, et al. Cancer pain. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2026 Aug 20;12(1):55. doi: 10.1038/s41572-026-00730-w. PMID: 42624866. 

1. Jimenez-Andrade JM, Mantyh WG, Bloom AP, Ferng AS, et al. Bone cancer pain. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2010 Jun;1198:173-81. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05429.x. PMID: 20536932; PMCID: PMC5642911. 

1. Galligan M, Verity R, Wiseman T, Briggs E. Cancer pain knowledge and attitudes of healthcare professionals: A systematic review of surveys and their measurement properties. Br J Pain. 2026 Apr 13:20494637261442745. doi: 10.1177/20494637261442745.CRUK cancer stats 

1. Cancer Research UK. Cancer Statistics for the UK. https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics [last accessed 12.10.26] 

1. Macmillan Cancer Support. Cancer statistics in the UK https://www.macmillan.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/research/cancer-statistics-fact-sheet 

1. Glare PA, Davies PS, Finlay E, Gulati A, et al. Pain in cancer survivors. J Clin Oncol. 2014 Jun 1;32(16):1739-47. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2013.52.4629. Epub 2014 May 5. PMID: 24799477; PMCID: PMC4031191. 

1. Boland E, Ahmedzai SH. Persistent pain in cancer survivors. Curr Opin Support Palliat Care 2017 Sep;11(3):181-190.