ArticleAdvances in radiation oncology
Risk of Chronic Opioid Use After Radiation for Head and Neck Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Article in Advances in radiation oncology. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Unveiling Prescribing Patterns: A Systematic Review of Chronic Opioid Prescriptions After Head and Neck Cancer Surgeries.Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy of prophylactic gabapentin in managing oral mucositis pain in patients undergoing non-surgical management of head and neck tumors.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Pooled it
- Prophylactic gabapentin during head and neck cancer therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2023Pooled it
- Palliative radiotherapy plus multimodal analgesia for painful bone metastases: improved pain control and survival.American journal of cancer research · 2026Article
- Machine learning predicting acute pain and opioid dose in radiation treated oropharyngeal cancer patients.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Prophylactic High-Dose Gabapentin Reduces Opiate Use during Radiation Therapy for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Cancers · 2023Article
- Sociodemographic Differences in Patient-Reported Pain and Pain Management of Patients With Head and Neck Cancer in a Community Oncology Setting.JCO oncology practice · 2023Article
- Psychological Survivorship in Head and Neck Cancer.Seminars in plastic surgery · 2023Review
- Global variation in opioid prescribing after head and neck reconstruction: understanding the United States' outlier status.Journal of oral and maxillofacial anesthesia · 2022Article
- Opioid prescribing and consumption after head and neck free flap reconstruction: what is the evidence for multimodal analgesia?Journal of oral and maxillofacial anesthesia · 2022Article
- Association of Gabapentin Use With Pain Control and Feeding Tube Placement Among Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Receiving Chemoradiotherapy.JAMA network open · 2022Article
- Opioid therapy vs. multimodal analgesia in head and neck Cancer (OPTIMAL-HN): study protocol for a randomized clinical trial.BMC palliative care · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeOpioid addiction is a major public health concern. Chronic opioid use (COU) patterns after radiation for head and neck cancer (HNC) remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of COU and to identify its risk factors in patients with HNC undergoing curative-intent radiation therapy (RT) or chemoradiotherapy (CRT). METHODS AND MATERIALS: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis using the PubMed (Medline), EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases, queried from dates of inception until January 2020. COU was defined as persistent use of opioids ≥ 3 months after treatment completion. Meta-analyses were performed using random effects models. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I
resultsSeven retrospective studies, reporting on 1841 patients, met the inclusion criteria. Median age was 59.4 (range: 56.0-62.0) years with 1343 (72.9%) men and 498 (27.1%) women. Primary tumor locations included oropharynx (n = 891, 48.4%), oral cavity (n = 533, 29.0%), larynx (n = 93, 5.1%), hypopharynx (n = 32, 1.7%), and nasopharynx (n = 29, 1.6%). Eight hundred fifty-four (46.0%) patients had stage I/II and 952 (50.3%) had stage III-IV disease. Three hundred one (16.3%) patients had RT alone, 738 (40.1%) received CRT, and 594 (32.3%) underwent surgery followed by adjuvant RT/CRT. The proportion of patients with HNC who developed COU post-RT/CRT was 40.7% at 3 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 22.6%-61.7%; I
conclusionsA significant proportion of patients who undergo RT for HNC suffer from COU. High-risk factors for COU include an oropharyngeal primary, history of psychiatric disorder, former/current alcohol abuse, and pre-treatment opioid use. New strategies to mitigate COU are needed.
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Registered trials
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