In the United States,
cancer is the second most common cause of death and it is expected that about 562,340 Americans will have died of
cancer in 2009.
Bone cancer pain is common in patients with advanced breast, prostate, and
lung cancer as these
tumors have a remarkable affinity to metastasize to bone. Once
tumors metastasize to bone, they are a major cause of morbidity and mortality as the
tumor induces significant skeletal remodeling, fractures,
pain, and
anemia. Currently, the factors that drive
cancer pain are poorly understood. However, several recently introduced models of
bone cancer pain, which closely mirror the human condition, are providing insight into the mechanisms that drive
bone cancer pain and guide the development of mechanism-based
therapies to treat the
cancer pain. Several of these mechanism-based
therapies have now entered human clinical trials. If successful, these
therapies have the potential to significantly enlarge the repertoire of modalities that can be used to treat
bone cancer pain and improve the quality of life, functional status, and survival of patients with
bone cancer.