A study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology found minority patients are 50 percent more likely to receive inadequate treatment for cancer-related pain, according to a report by HemOnc Today.
More than two-thirds of patients reported pain or required analgesics. Of those, 670 were given inadequate analgesic prescribing, the study found. In addition, 19.3 percent reported moderate or severe pain and 40 percent of those patients did not receive an opioid analgesic. Physicians prescribed strong opioids for 13.4 percent of patients.
The prospective and observational study of pain and analgesic prescribing covered medical oncology outpatients with breast, colorectal, lung or prostate cancer.
Read the HemOnc Today report on treatment of pain.
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