College Knowledge Exchange - Physiotherapy in Cancer Pain Management

Overview

Cancer-related pain is a multidimensional experience influenced by disease processes, treatment effects, functional impairment, and psychosocial factors. Contemporary oncology and palliative care frameworks emphasise person-centred, multidisciplinary, and function-focused approaches to pain management, in which physiotherapy plays an integral role.

This presentation will examine the evidence base for physiotherapy-led and non-pharmacological interventions in the management of cancer-related pain across the cancer continuum, including active treatment, survivorship, and palliative care. The session will address key domains of physiotherapy practice in oncology, including assessment of complex pain presentations, goal-oriented intervention planning, symptom modification, and optimisation of function and quality of life.

Participants will review evidence supporting exercise-based interventions, education and self-management strategies, physical modalities, and movement-based approaches. Particular attention will be given to photobiomodulation therapy, including its biological mechanisms, clinical indications, safety considerations, and integration within multidisciplinary cancer pain management pathways.

The lecture will align physiotherapy interventions with palliative care principles of comfort, dignity, function, and shared decision-making, supporting clinicians to deliver safe, evidence-informed, and compassionate care consistent with professional and specialty competency frameworks.

Presenter

Dr Liisa Laakso, MACP, is Principal Research Fellow (Allied Health) at Mater Research Institute, Brisbane; Honorary Associate Professor at The University of Queensland Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences; and Adjunct Professor of Physiotherapy in the School of Allied Health, Sport and Social Work at Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. Dr Laakso's research focuses on:- the role of photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy for pain, lymphoedema management, tissue healing, inflammation and neurodegeneration in a range of non-malignant and malignant laboratory and clinical models and populations; - symptom control and prevention in chronic disease, and in recovery after cancer, and in palliative care.