ArticleSupportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer2022
Long-term opioid use in patients treated with head and neck intensity-modulated radiotherapy.
Article in Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Long-term quality of life in head and neck cancer: the role of postdiagnosis smoking behavior.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2025Article
- Respiratory muscle training reduces painful swallowing and opioid use during radiation therapy for head and neck cancer: a matched pair analysis.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- ED visits, hospital admissions and treatment breaks in head/neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeAcute and chronic pain during and after radiotherapy is an important driver of poor quality of life. We aimed to identify risk factors associated with increased chronic opioid use in head and neck squamous cell cancer survivors.
methodsWe performed a retrospective cohort analysis on head and neck squamous cell cancer patients treated with definitive or adjuvant intensity-modulated radiotherapy. We tracked their oncologic opioid prescription profile from initial presentation to the last follow-up date. We determined the incidences of 1- and 2-year opioid use and performed multivariate logistic regression for both outcomes.
resultsOur analytic cohort consisted of 403 head and neck squamous cell cancer survivors. The numbers of patients requiring opioids at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year after treatment were 316 (78%), 203 (50%), and 102 (25%), respectively. On multivariate logistic regression, positive smoking history (95% CI 1.86 [1.03, 3.43], p = 0.04), unemployment (95% CI 2.33 [1.16, 4.67], p = 0.02), prior psychiatric illness (95% CI 2.15 [1.05, 4.40], p = 0.03), and opiate use before radiotherapy (95% CI 2.75 [1.49, 5.20], p = 0.01) were independently associated with significantly greater odds of opioid use at 1 year.
conclusionsOur institutional analysis has shown that a substantial amount of head and neck cancer survivors are chronically dependent on opioids following radiotherapy. We have identified a cohort at highest risk for long-term use, for whom early interventions should be targeted.
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