Total pain in a patient with lung cancer diagnosis

Pain is experienced by most cancer patients. According to the definition of the International Society forthe Study of Pain (IASP), pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resemblingthat associated with, actual or potential tissue damage. This very “medical” definition indicatesthat pain is a mental, subjective, sensual, emotional, and unpleasant phenomenon. In palliative care, thereis often a need for a better and deeper understanding of what “total” pain can be. The case of a youngpatient with lung cancer diagnosis presented an opportunity to describe characteristics of such pain, whichencompasses physical, mental, social and spiritual suffering