New research has shown that the use and misuse of the highly addictive opioid class of medications may pose an additional threat – pancreatic cancer.
In the United States, opioid misuse has spiralled into one of the biggest healthcare epidemics facing the country. Of 70 000 deaths from substance abuse in the country in 2017, 68% involved opioids. Among patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain, 29% are misusing them and 12% have developed an opioid misuse disorder. Rates of pancreatic cancer are also on the increase in the US. In West Central Asia, opium use recently been linked to pancreatic cancer.Using Centres for Disease Control (CDC) data, the study’s researchers controlled for confounding variables, took opioid death rates as a surrogate for proscription and misuse, and compared it to incidences of pancreatic cancer.
Analysing the dataset, they found that opioid use was associated with pancreatic cancer rates, with the opioid use rates predicting the pancreatic cancer trends years later.Faraz Bishehsari, MD, Ph.D., the corresponding author of the study, said: “Our mechanistic studies could provide further insights on the pathways that opioid could potentially impact progression of cancer.”
In order to confirm the findings, there is a need for sizeable population-based studies or longitudinal datasets that reliably track long-term outcomes in opioid users. Once these findings are confirmed by population-based studies, these will have an impact in considering alternative pain management methods in patients.Adding credence to this link is a recent post-hoc analysis of advanced cancer patients that showed patients receiving regular opioid antagonists had a significantly improved survival rate over placebo.
Source: Medical Xpress
Journal information: Usman Barlass et al. Opioid use as a potential risk factor for pancreatic cancer in the United States: An analysis of state and national level databases, PLOS ONE (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244285
