A Look at Cancer-Related Pain and Opioid Prescribing Trends from 2016 to 2021
A study published in JCO Oncology Practice examined trends in opioid prescribing by oncologists for patients with cancer-related pain referred to a tertiary cancer center’s outpatient palliative care clinic. The authors reported that median prescribed opioid doses declined fivefold—from 37.5 to 7.5 morphine-equivalent milligrams per day—between 2016 and 2021. They also found that prescriptions for long-acting opioids dropped by more than 50%. The authors conclude that these findings raise concerns about the undertreatment of cancer-related pain, despite existing guideline exemptions for opioid use in this population.