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A latest evaluation reveals a modest decline from 2016 to 2020 in new and extra opioid prescriptions for sufferers with most cancers. Amongst these sufferers with metastatic most cancers, prescribing remained steady for these reporting any ache and declined steeply for these reporting no ache. The findings are revealed within the journal Most cancers.
In response to the opioid disaster, public well being efforts have sought to enact insurance policies and laws to cut back inappropriate opioid prescribing and stop unsafe opioid use, together with hostile outcomes corresponding to opioid use dysfunction and opioid overdose. Nonetheless, such efforts may unintentionally scale back entry to opioids for sufferers with most cancers, resulting in under-treatment of cancer-related ache.
To evaluate developments in opioid prescribing for sufferers with most cancers, investigators analyzed knowledge on adults who had not beforehand been prescribed opioids and have been newly identified with most cancers in 2016–2020 in a big Connecticut well being system. New opioid prescriptions have been outlined as these given within the first six months following prognosis, and extra prescriptions have been outlined as these given within the first six months following prognosis and in months 7–9 after prognosis.
Within the examine of 10,232 sufferers, there was a decline in new (71.1% to 64.6%) and extra (27.2% to 24.2%) prescribing from 2016 to 2020. Amongst sufferers who underwent most cancers surgical procedure, new opioid prescribing fell from 96.0% to 88.6%, whereas further prescribing was steady at 13%. For sufferers with metastatic most cancers, new prescribing was steady at 56% for many who reported ache and declined from 61.6% to 36.1% for these reporting no ache.
“The treatment of cancer-related pain in the setting of the ongoing opioid epidemic is complicated. Reassuringly, our study shows that declines in opioid prescribing for patients with cancer appear to reflect clinical judgment and context,” mentioned lead creator Laura Van Metre Baum, MD, MPH, of Yale Faculty of Medication on the time of the examine, now of Dana-Farber Most cancers Institute. “Important questions remain regarding how to best ensure adequate treatment of cancer pain for all patients.”
Extra data:
Opioid prescribing developments and ache scores amongst grownup sufferers with most cancers in a big well being system, Most cancers (2025). DOI: 10.1002/cncr.70027
Quotation:
Research experiences on latest developments in opioid prescribing for sufferers with most cancers (2025, September 22)
retrieved 22 September 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-09-trends-opioid-patients-cancer.html
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