The presence of breakthrough pain should
be assessed as part of comprehensive cancer
pain assessment. As part of history taking during
initial assessment, patients should be asked
a series of questions to establish whether they
have breakthrough pain, including:
Do you have background pain (a constant pain
experienced on a daily basis)?
Is the background pain adequately controlled?
Do you have transient exacerbations of pain?
If the patient answers yes to all three questions,
breakthrough pain is present (Davies et al 2009).