The oncologist
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Efficacy and safety of zoledronic acid in patients with breast cancer metastatic to bone: a multicenter clinical trial.
This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of zoledronic acid in breast cancer patients with newly diagnosed bone metastases. ⋯ Breast cancer patients with newly diagnosed bone metastases who were treated with zoledronic acid had a low incidence of SREs compared with patients who received placebo in randomized phase III trials, and pain was decreased from baseline. This study demonstrated the favorable risk:benefit ratio of zoledronic acid for the prevention of skeletal complications.
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Pain is one of the most common and often most feared symptoms in patients with cancer. Ongoing or progressive pain is physically debilitating and has a marked impact on quality of life. Since a third of the population will die from cancer, and of these, 80% will experience severe pain in their final year of life, effective treatment of cancer-related pain remains both a high priority and an ongoing challenge in clinical practice. ⋯ This review discusses candidate genes, which contribute to opioid response; many other genes have also been implicated in "pain" from animal or human studies. In order to continue to evaluate the genetic contributions to both pain susceptibility and analgesic response, further candidate genes need to be considered. Good pain control remains a high priority for clinicians and patients, and there is much work to be done to further individualize analgesic therapy for patients with cancer.