Survival Outcomes Associated With the Size of Opioid Prescriptions in the Management of Chronic Pain Related to Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Abstract

Objective Patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (ANC) often experience chronic pain. Opioids are generally recommended to treat tumor-related pain, but increased opioid use may lead to detrimental aftereffects, particularly with respect to tumor progression, resulting in reduced quality of life and increased risk of death. Our objective was to investigate whether the high size of opioid prescriptions is associated with poor overall survival (OS) in patients with ANC. Methods A consecutive cohort of patients with newly diagnosed ANC who underwent high or low opioid prescription size treatment during 2012–2019 was retrospectively identified from our medical institutions. Survival was estimated with the Kaplan–Meier method with a log-rank test. Multivariate binary logistic regression was used to assess the association between opioid use and OS, adjusting for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), Eastern Collaborative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS), and ANC histology. The criterion to distinguish between the high opioid prescription size group [HD] and the low opioid prescription size group [LD] was 5 mg of oral morphine equivalents (OME) per 24 hours. Results The cohort consisted of 244 consecutive patients (HD: n = 120, median age = 66 years [range, 40–81 years]; LD: n = 124, median age = 65 years [40–82 years]. Patients who underwent treatment with a high opioid prescription size had a worse median OS than those who underwent treatment with a low opioid prescription size (5.1 vs 6.6 months), and the high opioid prescription size was associated with a remarkable 48% higher risk of death than the low opioid prescription size (HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.11–1.98; P = .005). The cumulative dose of opioids greater than or equal to 500 mg of OME was associated with a higher risk of death, adjusted for age, sex, BMI, ECOG PS, and ANC histology. Conclusions In patients with newly diagnosed ANC experiencing palliative care, a high opioid prescription size may be associated with shorter OS than a low opioid prescription size.