Use of opioid analgesics in the treatment of cancer pain: evidence-based recommendations from the EAPC

Summary:

Here we provide the updated version of the guidelines of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) on the use of opioids for the treatment of cancer pain. The update was undertaken by the European Palliative Care Research Collaborative. Previous EAPC guidelines were reviewed and compared with other currently available guidelines, and consensus recommendations were created by formal international expert panel. The content of the guidelines was defined according to several topics, each of which was assigned to collaborators who developed systematic literature reviews with a common methodology. The recommendations were developed by a writing committee that combined the evidence derived from the systematic reviews with the panellists' evaluations in a co-authored process, and were endorsed by the EAPC Board of Directors. The guidelines are presented as a list of 16 evidence-based recommendations developed according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system.

Our intention is to disseminate and to facilitate the use and the impact of this EAPC document, . This post is a preliminary contact to allow those who have access to the Lancer Oncology to have a look at the recommendations and reflect on the use they can make of them in their professions , at their institutions and at local political level.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/

The post-print (ie final draft post-refereeing) of the version of the recommendations will be soon available as a download file.

Augusto Caraceni, Geoffrey Hanks, Stein Kaasa
EAPC Research Network