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Published in: Supportive Care in Cancer 8/2015

01-08-2015 | Original Article

Opioids have no negative effect on the survival time of patients with advanced lung cancer in an acute care hospital

Authors: Seigo Minami, Kosuke Fujimoto, Yoshitaka Ogata, Suguru Yamamoto, Kiyoshi Komuta

Published in: Supportive Care in Cancer | Issue 8/2015

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not opioid administration influenced the survival time of patients with advanced lung cancer in an acute care hospital setting.

Methods

This was a single institutional and retrospective study. We reviewed patients with advanced lung cancer who had died from January 2008 to December 2013 at the Osaka Police Hospital. We compared survival times, calculated from the time of the last hospitalization or the last chemotherapy, between patients who had not used any opioids, those who had used a low dose of opioids (<60 mg/day), and those who had used a higher dose of opioids (≥60 mg/day).

Results

A total of 369 patients, of which 284 had received chemotherapy, were analyzed. Opioid users were generally younger than nonusers. There was no significant difference in survival time after the last hospitalization in terms of opioid dose at the last admission and mean daily opioid dose; there was also no significant difference in survival time after the last chemotherapy in terms of the mean daily opioid dose and the opioid dose at death. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis regarding survival time after the last hospitalization or the last chemotherapy did not reveal any opioid-related variables as a significant predictive factor.

Conclusions

Opioids were found to have no negative influence on survival time even in an acute care hospital.
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Metadata
Title
Opioids have no negative effect on the survival time of patients with advanced lung cancer in an acute care hospital
Authors
Seigo Minami
Kosuke Fujimoto
Yoshitaka Ogata
Suguru Yamamoto
Kiyoshi Komuta
Publication date
01-08-2015
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Supportive Care in Cancer / Issue 8/2015
Print ISSN: 0941-4355
Electronic ISSN: 1433-7339
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-014-2592-6

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