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My father suffers from pain in his joints and back. His doctor called it chronic non-cancer pain. Why is it important that his pain be described like that?

When someone is experiencing pain, to them it doesn't matter what it's called. However, for treatment purposes, doctors do need to know what type of pain they're dealing with. If someone with cancer is experiencing a lot of pain, their pain may be treated differently than the pain of someone whose pain is constant, but not life threatening. That's mainly why there is this classification.

Reference: 

Mark J. Edlund et al. Risk factors for clinically recognized opioid abuse and dependence among veterans using opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. In Pain. June 2007. Vol. 129. No. 3. Pp. 355-363.

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