Nerve Pain
Breast cancer can cause nerve (neuropathic) pain by growing around, along, and into nerves. It may intrude on the central nervous system in the brain, at the base of the skull where nerves leave the brain, in the spinal cord, and next to the spinal cord. It also may affect the peripheral nervous system by harming the nerves that branch off the spinal cord. Spread of the cancer to the lymph nodes around nerves can also damage the nerves and cause arm or leg pain.
Surgery, such as mastectomy or lymph node removal, can also cause nerve pain. This happens when scar tissue grows around nerves or when the nerves are cut, stretched, or bruised.
Nerve pain from cancer growth may respond best to a combination of therapies. First, you may be given steroids to relieve some of the swelling and pressure on the nerve tissue. This is followed by radiation therapy to shrink and get rid of the cancer that is pressing on the nerves.
NSAIDs (pronounced EN-seds) are helpful for mild surgical and other pain. Opioids (pronounced OH-pee-oydz) may be needed for more significant pain. Many patients also benefit from a special group of drugs that work directly on nerve function.
If you have a specific site of pain that is mild and persistent, your doctor may recommend that you wear a TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator) unit. This is a small electrical device that emits low-voltage vibrations. The vibrations that can interfere with, or drown out, the pain message your nerves are sending from your body to your brain.
Several procedures, performed by pain specialists, block or numb the involved nerve. Epidural (into the spine) infusions of morphine plus bupivicaine and/or clonidine are particularly helpful. In addition, rehabilitation medicine can help neuropathic pain through exercises.
