Trial reportBMC palliative care2023
Bicentre, randomized, parallel-arm, sham-controlled trial of transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) in the treatment of palliative care patients with refractory cancer pain.
Trial report in BMC palliative care, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Analgesic efficacy of non-invasive neuromodulation techniques in chronic cancer pain: a systematic review.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Pooled it
- Cancer pain.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026Review
- Brain-cancer interactions outside the CNS.Oncogene · 2026Review
- Mechanism-based management of taxane-induced neuropathic pain in breast cancer survivors: a critical review.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Exploring Acceptance of Pain Management Strategies in Oncology: A Single-Center Cross-Sectional Survey.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Article
- Clinical Potential of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound for Neurorehabilitation in Pediatric Cancer Survivors.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- The Application of tDCS to Treat Pain and Psychocognitive Symptoms in Cancer Patients: A Scoping Review.Neural plasticity · 2024Article
- Effects of Combining Music Therapy, Light Therapy, and Chromotherapy in the Treatment of Chronic Pain Patients: A Pilot Study.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2024Article
- Cancer Pain and Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation-A Narrative Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPain is a common symptom in palliative care cancer patients and is often insufficiently relieved. In recent years, transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) of the motor cortex has been shown to be effective to treat chronic pain, essentially neuropathic pain. We propose to test the efficacy of tDCS in patients experiencing cancer pain in the palliative care setting. METHOD/
designThis article describes the protocol of a bicentre, randomized, parallel-arm, sham-controlled clinical trial evaluating tDCS in the treatment of palliative care patients with refractory cancer pain. Seventy patients between the ages of 18 and 80 years experiencing refractory pain with a pain score of 4/10 on a numerical rating scale (NRS) ranging from 0 to 10 will be enrolled in this trial. The main exclusion criteria are patients unable to fill in the various rating scales and life expectancy less than 3 weeks. Treatment consists of 5 consecutive tDCS sessions targeting the motor cortex (one daily session for 5 days) on the contralateral side to the pain. After randomization (1:1 ratio), 35 patients will receive active stimulation and 35 patients will receive sham stimulation. The primary endpoint is the NRS score and the primary objective is a significant improvement of this score between the baseline score recorded between D-3 and D-1 and the score recorded 4 days after stopping treatment (D8). The secondary objectives are to evaluate whether this improvement is maintained 16 days after stopping treatment (D21) and whether the following scores are improved on D14 and D21: Brief Pain Inventory, Edmonton Symptom Assessment System, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Medication Quantification Scale. DISCUSSION: Positive results of this trial would indicate that tDCS can improve pain and quality of life of cancer patients in the palliative care setting. Reduction of analgesic consumption and improvement of activities of daily living should allow many patients to return home with a decreased workload for caregivers.
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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.