In the spring of 2012, Cure Magazine had an article about mindfulness meditation to ease stress during cancer treatment:
http://www.curetoday.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/article.show/id/2/article_id/1864
A recent study by UW–Madison neuroscientists shows that meditation experts have faster "neural habituation" to pain and less anxiety than novices:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21276
It sounds worth it to learn mindfulness meditation...