Cancer-related pain management update in 2025: refining established therapies and expanding toward integrated multimodal and longitudinal management.
- 1Department of Pain Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
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.
Related
- Case management-integrated supported employment for individuals with schizophrenia: a 3-year longitudinal study in China
- Multimodal Management of Isolated Pulmonary Metastasis From Choroidal Melanoma: A Case Report
- Editorial: Educational strategies and multimodal treatments for effective management of temporomandibular disorders and orofacial pain
- Bionic sleep therapy combined with multimodal management for chronic insomnia with alcohol withdrawal-related symptoms : A case report
- Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Advances in KRAS G12C‐Mutant Non‐Small Cell Lung Cancer: Toward Mechanism‐Guided Longitudinal Management
BibTeX
@article{li2026cancerrelated,
title = {{Cancer-related pain management update in 2025: refining established therapies and expanding toward integrated multimodal and longitudinal management.}},
author = {Yufeng Li and Jing Cang and Fang Fang},
journal = {Translational cancer research},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.21037/tcr-2026-2152},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42997887},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Cancer-related pain management update in 2025: refining established therapies and expanding toward integrated multimodal and longitudinal management.
AU - Yufeng Li
AU - Jing Cang
AU - Fang Fang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/23
JO - Translational cancer research
DO - 10.21037/tcr-2026-2152
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42997887
AB - 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.
SN - 2218-676X
SN - 2219-6803
ER -