However, darolutamide use did not significantly shorten the time to worsening of disease-related physical symptoms or time to initiation of opioids for 7 or more consecutive days.

US research has highlighted the risk for continued use of opioids and sedative-hypnotic drugs after mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

The likelihood of being prescribed opioids is greater for patients with head and neck cancer than for those with lung or colon cancer, findings indicate.

In an analysis of 3900 patients from the linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and Medicare databases – 50.9% of whom had minimally invasive VATS – the likelihood of remaining on opioids between 90 and 180 days after surgery was significantly lower with VATS versus open resection, at an odds ratio (OR) of 0.69 after adjusting for factors such as age at diagnosis, sex, histology, and tumor size and site.

A Canadian population-based study shows higher prescribing rates for opioids among cancer survivors than in individuals without a prior cancer diagnosis.

In addition, naldemedine was not associated with signs or symptoms of opioid withdrawal, which the authors suggest could have been a safety concern due to the “opposing pharmacology of naldemedine and opioids,” and it had no notable impact on opioid-mediated analgesia.

The second study – led by John Pang, from the University of California San Diego in the USA – found that postsurgical chronic opioid use was “quite high” among 99 oral cavity cancer patients, with 41% still taking opioids more than 90 days after undergoing surgery.