• Support Care Cancer · Aug 2019

    Review

    Opioids in cancer-related pain: current situation and outlook.

    • Brigitte George, Christian Minello, Gilles Allano, Caroline Maindet, Alexis Burnod, and Antoine Lemaire.
    • Pain Management Unit, Hospital Saint-Louis, Paris, France.
    • Support Care Cancer. 2019 Aug 1; 27 (8): 3105-3118.

    PurposeDespite progress in treatments, cancer pain remains underestimated, poorly assessed and under-treated. Prescribing strong opioids, because of their specificities, requires precision in management considering their pharmacology but also a clear understanding of recommendations. Some clinicians highlight the risk of addiction, excessive sedation and respiratory depression and their need for information. Our objective in this review is to suggest some clinical guidance for the positioning and daily use of opioids within cancer pain management.MethodsCritical reflection based on literature analysis and clinical practice.ResultsStrong opioids may be initiated as soon as pain diagnosis is defined. Factors to consider are pain aetiology, opioid pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, genetic polymorphism, physiology (age, gender, weight and pregnancy), comorbidities (especially renal, hepatic, cardiovascular diseases), chronobiology, environmental factors, medication interference and treatment adherence. Achieving the best-balanced opioid treatment for background pain is complex, mainly due to the variable benefit/risk ratio between individuals and the experience of breakthrough cancer pain. Opioid initiation alongside a dynamic reassessment of pain should be fully integrated into the patient's management to optimise analgesia. The efficacy and safety of a strong opioid treatment need to be re-evaluated and adapted to individuals constantly as it varies over time.ConclusionsCancer pain is multimorphic and permanently changing due to disease evolution, curative treatments and disruptive events (concomitant treatments, pain from associated disease, comorbidities and complications, modifications of the environment). Well-managed opioids are the cornerstone of a complex environment requiring multidisciplinary dynamic assessments integrated into the patient's care pathway.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.