ArticleCancer2025
Opioid prescribing trends and pain scores among adult patients with cancer in a large health system.
Article in Cancer, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Changes in opioid prescribing and high-risk co-prescribing after implementation of the 2016 CDC opioid guideline among older adults with and without cancer.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Opioid prescribing trends and pain scores among adult patients with cancer in a large health system.Cancer · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOpioid stewardship policies could adversely affect pain management for patients with cancer. Yet patients with cancer are also at risk for opioid-related harms. This study sought to determine trends in opioid prescribing by clinical stratum and pain for patients with cancer from 2016 to 2020.
methodsA retrospective study was conducted of opioid-naive adults with newly diagnosed cancer from 2016 to 2020 (N = 10,232) in a large Connecticut health system. Logistic regression was used to calculate changes in the predicted probability of opioid prescribing from 2016 to 2020. Two subpopulations were examined: patients treated surgically (n = 4405) and patients with metastatic cancer (n = 2158). Flowsheet pain scores for patients with metastatic cancer were used to stratify by no pain (all scores, 0) versus any pain. The main outcomes were new (≥1 prescription in the 0-6 months after diagnosis) and additional (0-6 and 7-9 months) opioid prescriptions.
resultsA decline was observed in the predicted probability of new (71.1% to 64.6%; p < .001) and additional prescribing (27.2% to 24.2%; p = .07 [not significant]) declined. Among surgical patients, the predicted probability of new opioid prescribing fell (96.0% to 88.6%; p < .001), whereas additional prescribing was stable (13%). For patients with metastatic cancer with pain, new opioid prescribing was stable (56%). For those reporting no pain, the predicted probability of new opioid prescribing declined from 61.6% to 36.1% (p < .001).
conclusionsIn the context of widespread policy changes, this study showed a modest decline in new and additional opioid prescribing for patients with cancer. In metastatic cancer, prescribing remained stable for patients reporting pain and declined steeply for those reporting no pain.
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