SynthesisJournal of cancer research and clinical oncology2023
The negative impact of opioids on cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of cannabis on immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy: a systematic review of immunomodulatory effects of cannabis in patients with and without cancer.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of concomitant medications on the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors: an umbrella review.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Pooled it
- Opioids and immunosuppression in patients with cancer.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Review
- Immunological Drug-Drug Interactions in Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy: Mechanisms, Clinical Evidence, and Artificial Intelligence.Current oncology reports · 2026Review
- Metabolic Modulation for Cancer Pain Relief: A Retrospective Pilot Study.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Concomitant Use of Analgesics and EGFR TKIs in Lung Cancer Patients: Outcomes and Perspectives From a Finnish Retrospective Register-Based Study.Cancer medicine · 2025Article
- Review
- Are they all the same? Different effects of opioid types on survival in metastatic NSCLC receiving nivolumab.American journal of cancer research · 2025Article
- Synergistic Proliferation Effects of Xanthohumol and Niflumic Acid on Merkel and Glioblastoma Cancer Cells: Role of Cell Membrane Interactions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Impact of opioid analgesics on survival in cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Observational
- PD-L1/PD-1 pathway: a potential neuroimmune target for pain relief.Cell & bioscience · 2024Review
- Towards a precision approach to anesthetic/analgesic immunomodulation in cancer.Frontiers in anesthesiology · 2024Article
- Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and the Exposome: Host-Extrinsic Factors Determine Response, Survival, and Toxicity.Cancer research · 2023Review
- Mu opioid receptor mRNA overexpression predicts poor prognosis among 18 common solid cancers: A pan-cancer analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
- Opioids and immune checkpoint inhibitors differentially regulate a common immune network in triple-negative breast cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeAs one of the most effective analgesics, opioids are essential for patients with cancer-related pain, even in the context of the opioid abuse crisis. The current meta-analysis aimed to identify whether concomitant exposure to opioids can affect the efficacy of ICIs and lead to a worse prognosis.
methodsPubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched based on the PRISMA checklist, through April 2022, for the following terms: ("opioids" OR "concomitant medication") AND ("Neoplasm" OR "Carcinoma" OR "Cancer" OR "Tumor") AND ("Immunotherapy" OR "Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor" OR "PD-L1 Inhibitor" OR "PD-1 Inhibitor" OR "CTLA-4 Inhibitor"). The outcomes considered were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) calculated using the random-effects or fixed-effects model.
resultsAfter screening 531 studies, a total of 7 articles involving 2690 patients were eligible for quantitative analysis. The use of opioids was negatively correlated with OS (HR 1.75, 95%CI 1.32-2.31, P < 0.001; I
conclusionOpioids significantly reduced OS and PFS in patients receiving ICI therapy. Thus, the use of different types of opioids should be considered with caution, and it is necessary to actively develop alternative treatments.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.