1, 2 It has been reported that tumor mestastases to the skeleton affect over 400,000 individuals in the United States annually. 1 Although bone is not a vital organ, many common tumors (breast, prostate, thyroid, kidney, and lung) have a strong predilection to simultaneously metastasize to multiple bones. The majority of patients with metastatic bone disease experience moderate to severe pain and bone pain is one of the most common types of chronic pain in these patients. 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. Several of these mechanism-based therapies have now entered human clinical trials.
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. Currently, the factors that drive cancer pain are poorly understood.
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. 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. 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.
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