Abstract

•Pain is prevalent and often not adequately treated in cancer patients, who are now able to live longer with “managed disease.”

•Cancer pain can pose treatment challenges as it may be the result of the underlying disease or it may be caused by surgery and other cancer therapies.

•While opioids were once prescribed routinely for cancer pain, the longer lives of cancer patients and the risks of OUD have increased scrutiny on who should and should not be prescribed opioids.

•Many people diagnosed with cancer arrive with substance use disorder; in a study of 1,554 cancer patients, 19% had used an opioid non-medically around the time of their diagnosis [2].

•While cancer patients are more likely to have an opioid prescription than those without cancer, they do not necessarily exhibit higher rates of opioid abuse.

•The purpose of this study was to examine complex opioid dependency in cancer patients as this is an emerging and important health concern.