Good morning, I am asking for advice please. I have incurable Liver Cancer and am on Immunotherapy treatment. Over the last week I have had a pain in the RHS side of my neck & shoulder making it painful to move either. My husband has been unable to find any muscle knots. Is there anything I should do or just put it down to getting older please ?
Hi mrs jg,
Thanks for getting in touch and welcome to our online community. I hope you find it a helpful space. My name is Kelly and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialists on the Macmillan Support line.
We’re sorry to hear that you are struggling with pain in the right hand side of your neck and shoulder.
As we’re not directly involved with your NHS care or able to assess any symptoms thoroughly here, this makes it difficult for us to know what the cause of your symptoms is.
Sometimes people can have what is known as referred pain in the right shoulder area when there is cancer in the liver. This can happen if the liver cancer stimulates the nerves under the diaphragm. These nerves also connect to the nerves in the right shoulder which causes the pain.
Sometimes if cancer has spread to the bones or spine this can also cause pain in any areas affected.
Although rare, a serious condition called a spinal cord compression can occur. This happens when a cancer grows in the spinal bones and presses on the spinal cord. This stops the nerves from working properly. This can cause symptoms anywhere in the body including the back, neck and arms. This can include pain, numbness and weakness.
Spinal cord compression is an urgent situation that needs treatment as soon as possible. The advice is not to wait for further symptoms to develop if it is not clear what is causing these.
We’re aware this sounds concerning and may not be the cause of your symptoms. However, as we don’t know your full situation it’s important to speak straight away to a healthcare professional involved with your care. They will very quickly be able to rule out what is likely to be causing the pain and can advise on appropriate tests or treatment.
Our advice is that you get in touch with your consultant, named cancer nurse specialist and GP today. As they are directly involved with your care they will be able to assess the symptoms fully to understand the cause and best way to manage this.
You can also phone your immunotherapy treatment helpline number if you were given one.
If you can’t speak to anyone straight away, you can call NHS 111 or go to A&E for further advice today too.
I hope that this information is helpful. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch again. We often find that we can help people more by talking to them directly. You can speak to one of our experiences cancer information nurses by calling our free helpline on 0808 808 00 00 or by webchat seven days a week 8am-8pm. You can also email us back and we aim to reply within two working days.
Kind regards,
Kelly
Cancer Information Nurse Specialist
Ref: KA/ DC
