Cancer-related pain management update in 2025: refining established therapies and expanding toward integrated multimodal and longitudinal management
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Cancer-related pain persists as a formidable obstacle across the entire care trajectory-from active treatment through palliative care and survivorship. This review surveys representative clinical studies published in 2025. Pharmacologic investigations addressed opioid dose optimization, breakthrough pain episodes, mechanism-informed adjunctive agents, and side-effect mitigation. Studies on radiotherapy and radiopharmaceuticals focused on candidate selection, analgesic response, functional outcomes, and skeletal-event reduction. For patients with refractory pain or anatomically definable sources, interventional approaches yielded encouraging results. Adjunctive integrative therapies-including acupuncture, massage, psychobiotics, and virtual reality-showed variable evidence quality and maturity. Overall, evidence was more mature for selected established therapies, whereas several interventional and integrative approaches remained supported by preliminary or heterogeneous findings. Concurrently, emerging research elucidated risk factors for pain chronicity and emphasized the necessity of systematic, patient-centered assessment and delivery coordination across care phases. Collectively, the 2025 literature demonstrates progressive refinement of standard therapies alongside growing interest in expansion toward integrated multimodal and longitudinal management. Given that most evidence derives from siloed interventions, with substantial heterogeneity in patient populations, clinical settings, follow-up duration, outcome measures, and methodological maturity, future investigations should prioritize integrated, sustainable models and assess their net effects on analgesia, functionality, and life quality across the oncology continuum.
Source: Translational Cancer Research
Authors: Yufeng Li, Jing Cang, Fang Fang
Institutions: Fudan University, Zhongshan Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7224133454