• Tomoya Sakurada, Shinya Takada, Hisae Eguchi, Keishiro Izumi, Nobunori Satoh, and Shiro Ueda.
• Department of Drug Information and Communication, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8675, Japan. sakurat@p.chiba-u.ac.jp
• Pharm World Sci. 2010 Dec 1; 32 (6): 737-43.

ObjectiveThis study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between the plasma concentration of morphine, morphine-3-glucuronide and morphine-6-glucuronide and pain in cancer patients receiving oral morphine.MethodsThe trough value of plasma concentrations of morphine and its metabolites were measured by high performance liquid chromatography using an ultraviolet detector. Using this assay system, the plasma concentrations of morphine, morphine-3-glucuronide and morphine-6-glucuronide in 26 cancer pain patients were measured and compared with pain intensity. The pain intensity was assessed at the time of blood sampling using the visual analog scale.ResultsThe trough value of morphine and morphine-6-glucuronide did not show a significant correlation with pain intensity by visual analog scale assessment, but morphine-3-glucuronide and the ratio of morphine-3-glucuronide/morphine showed a significantly positive correlation (r = 0.528, P = 0.006 and r = 0.671, P < 0.001, respectively). By dividing the group according to low (≤ median value) or high (> median value) VAS scores a significant difference was found between the two groups in morphine-3-glucuronide and the ratio of morphine-3-glucuronide/morphine (P = 0.045 and P = 0.007, respectively).ConclusionThese results indicated that the level of morphine-3-glucuronide is related to the patient's perception of morphine effect, and the plasma concentration of morphine-3-glucuronide and the ratio of morphine-3-glucuronide/morphine indicated potency to assess clinical effect.

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