Managing Cancer Pain in Patients With Opioid Use Disorder

Practice guidelines for cancer pain management recommend optimizing treatments to improve function and meet the patient's goals of care. Analgesic regimens often include an opioid in addition to adjuvant treat-ments. Cancer patients who use opioids in a dose or manner other than medically prescribed may develop opioid use disorder (OUD). Some patients may have OUD before their diagnosis of cancer and others may develop OUD during or after cancer treatment. Cancer patients with OUD may experience long-term, devastating consequences such as suboptimal management of their cancer or increased morbidity and mortality. Nurse practitioners caring for patients before, during, or after a diagnosis of cancer should un-derstand the risks of opioid use and treatment options for cancer patients at risk for developing OUD or diagnosed with OUD. Four case presentations discuss how a multidisciplinary team approached the man-agement of pain in patients with cancer and OUD.(c) 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.