SynthesisBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2017
A review of factors explaining variability in fentanyl pharmacokinetics; focus on implications for cancer patients.
Synthesis in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
57 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 122 citations in OpenAlex.
- A review of factors explaining variability in fentanyl pharmacokinetics; focus on implications for cancer patients.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2017Pooled it
- Efficacy of fentanyl combined with bupivacaine and morphine for spinal anesthesia during cesarean section: A double-blind randomized controlled trial.The Journal of international medical research · 2025Trial
- Safety, Tolerability, and Dose Proportionality of a Novel Transdermal Fentanyl Matrix Patch and Bioequivalence With a Matrix Fentanyl Patch: Two Phase 1 Single-Center Open-Label, Randomized Crossover Studies in Healthy Japanese Volunteers.Clinical pharmacology in drug development · 2021Trial
- Minor contribution of cytochrome P450 3A activity on fentanyl exposure in palliative care cancer patients.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Effect of creatine phosphate sodium on bispectral index and recovery quality during the general anaesthesia emergence period in elderly patients: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.The Journal of international medical research · 2018Trial
- Pharmacokinetic Characterisation and Comparison of Bioavailability of Intranasal Fentanyl, Transmucosal, and Intravenous Administration through a Three-Way Crossover Study in 24 Healthy Volunteers.Pain research & managementTrial
- Opioids to Treat Chronic Pain in the Older Adult: A Clinical Consensus to Guarantee Safety and Avoid Adverse Events.Drugs & aging · 2026Review
- Identifying Sex Differences in Adverse Events Reported on Opioid Drugs in the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS).Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Postmortem Redistribution of Drugs Commonly Used in Rapid Sequence Induction for Anesthesia: A Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Biological sex differences in pharmacokinetics and adverse drug reactions.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Impact of genetic polymorphisms on the response to transdermal fentanyl in cancer patients-a single-center, prospective, biological study.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Opioid Use in Cancer Pain Management: Navigating the Line Between Relief and Addiction.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Treating Opioid Use Disorder and Opioid Withdrawal in the Context of Fentanyl.Annual review of clinical psychology · 2025Review
- Review
- Review of the Interactions Between Anesthetic Agents and Chemotherapeutic Agents in Cancer Cell Lines Studied In Vitro.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2025Review
- The Rise of Fentanyl: Molecular Aspects and Forensic Investigations.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Remifentanil reduces post-induction hypotension compared to fentanyl in thoracoscopic esophagectomy: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Effect of changes in skin properties due to diabetes mellitus on the titration period of transdermal fentanyl: single-center retrospective study and diabetic animal model study.Journal of pharmaceutical health care and sciences · 2024Article
- Article
- Case report of pharmacokinetic analysis of continuous intravenous infusion of fentanyl in a patient with severe burn: burn shock stage complicates pain management.Journal of pharmaceutical health care and sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Fentanyl is a strong opioid that is available for various administration routes, and which is widely used to treat cancer-related pain. Many factors influence the fentanyl pharmacokinetics leading to a wide inter- and intrapatient variability. This systematic review summarizes multiple studied factors that potentially influence fentanyl pharmacokinetics with a focus on implications for cancer patients. The use of CYP3A4 inhibitors and inducers, impaired liver function, and heating of the patch potentially influence fentanyl pharmacokinetics in a clinically relevant way. In elderly patients, current data suggest that we should carefully dose fentanyl due to alterations in absorption and metabolism. The influence of BMI and gender on fentanyl pharmacokinetics is questionable, most probably due to a large heterogeneity in the published studies. Pharmacogenetics, e.g. the CYP3A5*3 gene polymorphism, may influence fentanyl pharmacokinetics as well, although further study is warranted. Several other factors have been studied but did not show significant and clinically relevant effects on fentanyl pharmacokinetics. Unfortunately, most of the published papers that studied factors influencing fentanyl pharmacokinetics describe healthy volunteers instead of cancer patients. Results from the studies in volunteers may not be simply extrapolated to cancer patients because of multiple confounding factors. To handle fentanyl treatment in a population of cancer patients, it is essential that physicians recognize factors that influence fentanyl pharmacokinetics, thereby preventing potential side-effects and increasing its efficacy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.