Cancer Pain Management in Patients with Opioid Use Disorder

Updated cancer pain management recommendations considering the rise of opioid use disorder (OUD) and opioid overdose deaths. Few studies examine cancer pain management specific to patients with OUD. This narrative review aims to review recent literature on the topic, synthesize current recommendations, and formulate practical guidance.

We explored Google Scholar, PubMed, and institutional databases using keywords: cancer pain, pain management, and OUD for key literature. Themes found were multimodal cancer pain management, opioid selection, opioid and OUD stigma, and barriers to medications for opioid use disorder treatment (MOUD) in cancer pain.

There was limited evidence outside of case reports and expert consensus recommendations on cancer pain management in patients with OUD, and increasing reports of barriers to use of MOUD in interdisciplinary care. Further studies are needed on facilitators to providing interdisciplinary care, including use of MOUD, for patients with cancer pain and OUD.