Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
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Support Care Cancer · Jul 2015
Assessing the response to opioids in cancer patients: a methodological proposal and the results.
The efficacy of treatment with opioids in cancer pain is variable. To evaluate this variability, we (1) applied two parameters, changes in pain intensity (PI) and opioid daily doses (DDs), to distinguish different responses to opioids. The need to switch to another opioid was recorded. We then (2) evaluated the distribution of the responses depending on these parameters, alone and taken together, in cancer patients with pain. ⋯ Different degrees of response to opioids were observed, PI and DD changes both contributing. Only over half the patients had a full positive response.
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Palliative care program structure is important to integrating palliative services into cancer care. A first step in understanding the structure of palliative care programs is to survey existing programs. ⋯ This study not only differs in some respects to a previous survey of palliative care programs but also confirms the late referral of patients to palliative care.