Measurement of the Association of Pain with Clinical Characteristics in Oral Cancer Patients at Diagnosis and Prior to Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Aim

Oral cancer patients suffer pain at the site of the cancer, which degrades quality of life (QoL). The University of California San Francisco Oral Cancer Pain Questionnaire (UCSFOCPQ), the only validated instrument specifically designed for measuring oral cancer pain, measures the intensity and nature of pain and the level of functional restriction due to pain.

Purpose

The aim of this study was to compare pain reported by untreated oral cancer patients on the UCSFOCPQ with pain they reported on the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), an instrument widely used to evaluate cancer and non-cancer pain.

Patients and Methods

The correlation between pain measured by the two instruments and clinical characteristics were analyzed. Thirty newly diagnosed oral cancer patients completed the UCSFOCPQ and the BPI.

Results

Pain severity measurements made by the UCSFOCPQ and BPI were concordant; however, the widely used BPI average pain over 24 hours score appeared less sensitive to detect association of oral cancer pain with clinical characteristics of patients prior to treatment (nodal status, depth of invasion, DOI). A BPI average score that includes responses to questions that measure both pain severity and interference with function performs similarly to the UCSFOCPQ in detection of associations with nodal status, pathologic T stage (pT stage), stage and depth of invasion (DOI).

Conclusion

Pain assessment instruments that measure sensory and interference dimensions of oral cancer pain correlate with biologic features and clinical behavior.

Keywords:

• pretreatment oral cancer pain
• University of California San Francisco Oral Cancer Pain Questionnaire
• Brief Pain Inventory
• pain severity
• pain interference with functioning

Acknowledgments

Brian L Schmidt and Donna G Albertson are co-senior authors for this study. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants R01 CA228525, R01 CA231396, R01 DE026806, R01 DE029694, R01 DE029951, and K23 DE029844. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. The funder had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Disclosure

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in this work.