Objective   To study the general characteristics of cancer pain and to improve cancer pain diagnosis and treatment level by prospective and open cross-sectional assessment of the clinical characteristics of patients with moderate to severe cancer pain.

  Methods   Patients with moderate to severe cancer pain were observed upon initial admission to the hospital from December 2012 to December 2013. We assessed pain intensity, location, characteristics, and predisposing and mitigating factors and classified the pain by pathophysiology.

  Results   A total of 310 patients with moderate (101 cases, 32.58%) and severe (209 cases, 67.42%) pains were assessed. The top five cancers identified were lung cancer (102 cases, 32.90%), colorectal cancer (30 cases, 9.68%), pancreatic cancer (27 cases, 8.71%), breast cancer (24 cases, 7.74%), and gastric cancer (20 cases, 6.54%). These patients reported 533 cancer pain locations, including waist (132 cases), abdominal (125 cases), chest (88 cases), lower limb (71 cases), shoulder, neck, and upper limb (47 cases), pelvis (33 cases), perineal area (23 cases), and head and face (14 cases). The pain location of the pancreatic cancer was 90.63% consistent with the primary tumor site. The pathophysiology of the pain was classified as follows: bone pain (145 cases, 27.20%), visceral pain (138 cases, 25.89%), soft tissue pain (126 cases, 23.64%), and neuropathic pain (124 cases, 23.27%). The incidence of visceral pain in pancreatic cancer was 92.59%

  Conclusion   A variety of common malignancies could cause moderate to severe pain, especially lung cancer. The clinical manifestation of pancreatic cancer pain is visceral pain. The location of this cancer was consistent with the primary tumor site. No apparent specificity was observed in other cancer types.