Despite recent attention to pain assessment and management, cancer pain remains a significant clinical problem worldwide. A total of 38% of cancer patients experience moderate to severe pain that is unresponsive to conventional analgesia and may benefit from additional pain interventions. With expert management, for most people with cancer, pain can be treated effectively with conventional pharmacological approaches, however a minority find either that analgesic management strategies provide suboptimal pain relief or cause excessive side effects.

This article describes how collaborative working between a specialist palliative care team and acute pain service can help provide the most effective pain relief for this group of patients. The article uses a case study to describe how the teams work with the wider multidisciplinary cancer team to provide coordinated support and pain management for patients and their families.