Calcitonin for Cancer Pain

Calcitonin may help relieve some types of nerve pain, including phantom pain.^{Reference 1} Phantom pain is a feeling of pain or other uncomfortable sensations in body parts that are no longer there, such as after an amputation. Although the limb is gone, the nerve endings at the site of the amputation continue to send pain signals to the brain that make the brain think the limb is still there. Women who have had a breast removed because of breast cancer may also feel phantom pain.

Calcitonin has also been used to help relieve bone pain caused by metastatic cancer. Some people may get relief. But the research done so far does not prove that calcitonin works for bone pain.^{Reference 2} The benefits of calcitonin may take many weeks to notice, and they often go away soon after the medicine is stopped.

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