Treatments that could help ease the chronic pain experienced by thousands of childhood cancer survivors are being investigated by scientists and researchers in the UK.
About eight in 10 children survive their cancer for 10 years or more, but more than half of them report delayed and ongoing pain in adulthood.
Dr Richard Hulse, a sensory neurophysiologist at Nottingham Trent University’s school of science and technology, is researching the ways in which chemotherapy causes patients to experience persistent pain by damaging nerve cells, as part of a two-year study led by the Medical Research Foundation is funded.
Hulse said cancer treatments such as chemotherapy early in life can damage nerve cells that detect pain, and can change how pain is experienced as the patient becomes an adult.
He said that although cancer treatment has evolved and a person’s life expectancy has greatly improved after the disease, “persistent pain post-treatment is a significant problem in children who live into adulthood and can seriously affect their quality of life, but we still know little about the biological pathways and mechanisms that drive it”.
In healthy people, the body’s natural immune system helps preserve the mitochondria of nociceptor cells, which are nerve cell terminals that initiate the sensation of pain.
Hulse said chemotherapy can stop that from happening. “We want to investigate how the immune system and these nerve cells interact. Mitochondria are important as they provide the cells with energy,” he said.
The NTU team said they wanted to investigate whether transferring mitochondria from healthy cells to chemotherapy-damaged nerve cells could stop the nerves from generating pain.
Hulse added: “Transferring functional healthy mitochondria could help nerve health. We believe it could provide a unique pathway to protect nerves from pain and provide a way to identify potential new treatments.”
Survey figures from Macmillan Cancer Support shows that one in three people with cancer – the equivalent of 1 million people across the UK – said it was harder now than at “any other time they can remember”, and one in five people going through cancer treatment in the UK go, are struggling with serious physical or emotional concerns but are not getting the support they need.
Steven McIntosh, Macmillan’s chief partnership officer, said the cancer care system was “unfair and broken”.
“Every day we hear about the devastating impact that cancer has on all areas of people’s lives, and despite the best efforts of health professionals, cancer care is crumbling under tremendous pressure. It is categorically unacceptable that, for many people, your cancer experience is worse depending on who you are and where you live,” he said.
“The cancer care system is unfair and broken, but better is possible. In next week’s budget we urgently need to see the chancellor put in place sufficient funding to rebuild us successfully. NHS and improve the support people with cancer receive across all areas of their lives, both now and in the future.
“We are encouraged by the government starting a public conversation about the future of the NHS; it is crucial that the 10-year health plan is informed by people with experience of cancer. The Government can deliver real change through the Budget to both address the immediate crisis in cancer care and lay the foundation for future improvements.”
