Specifically, the incidence rate ratio for lung, colorectal, breast, prostate, head and neck, pancreatic, gastric, esophageal, and ovarian cancers and for hepatocellular carcinoma were higher in patients with than without a history of long-term opioid use…medscape.com, Long-term Opioid Use a Risk Factor for Cancer, Abdullah Hashmi, MD, Apr, 2022
Some of the key results of the study included:
There were no notable differences in demographic characteristics, medical history, or social history between the two groups.
The difference in crude cancer incidence between the opioid group and the control group was significant (P < .001).
On multivariate Cox regression analysis, the adjusted hazard ratio was 2.66 for the opioid group compared with the control group (P < .001).
Long-term opioid use was shown to be a risk for these cancers: lung (incidence rate ratio [IRR],1.87), hepatocellular carcinoma (IRR, 1.97), colorectal (IRR, 2.39), breast (IRR, 2.43), prostate (IRR, 2.00), head and neck (IRR, 1.79), pancreatic (IRR, 1.87), gastric (IRR, 2.43), esophageal (IRR, 2.43), and ovarian (IRR, 2.33).