International journal of clinical oncology
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Int. J. Clin. Oncol. · Feb 2010
Clinical TrialA prospective open-label trial of gabapentin as an adjuvant analgesic with opioids for Japanese patients with neuropathic cancer pain.
Neuropathic pain is regarded as one of the main causes of cancer pain refractory to standard opioid therapy in palliative care. The use of adjuvant analgesics for neuropathic cancer pain is largely empirical and the true efficacy of these adjuvant analgesics has been unknown. Gabapentin is one of the new promising anticonvulsant drugs as an adjuvant analgesic for neuropathic cancer pain. ⋯ Although gabapentin might be regarded as a promising new adjuvant analgesic for neuropathic cancer pain, our results indicated that the decrease in pain score was of minimal clinical benefit. Controlled trials with other adjuvant analgesics are needed.