Cancer Patients Getting Needed Painkillers Despite Opioid Crisis Response

Key Takeaways

• Opioid prescriptions for cancer patients have declined in recent years

• However, prescription rates have remained stable for advanced cancer patients in pain

• Cancer patients also are getting opioids after undergoing surgery

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 24, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The fight against America’s opioid crisis does not appear to have cost cancer patients the painkillers they need, a new study says.

There was a decline in opioid prescriptions among cancer patients between 2016 and 2020, researchers reported in the October issue of the journal Cancer.

But opioid prescriptions remained stable among patients in pain from advanced cancer.

Instead, opioid scrips mainly dropped among cancer patients reporting no pain, researchers said.

“Reassuringly, our study shows that declines in opioid prescribing for patients with cancer appear to reflect clinical judgment and context,” lead researcher Dr. Laura Van Metre Baum said in a news release. A hematologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, she was with Yale School of Medicine when she led the study.

Policymakers and public health experts have responded to the opioid crisis by trying to reduce inappropriate opioid prescriptions, researchers said in background notes.

But some are concerned that these efforts might deny opioids to legitimate patients suffering terrible pain, including folks fighting cancer.

For the study, researchers analyzed data for more than 10,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients treated by the Yale New Haven Health System in Connecticut between 2016 and 2020.

Results showed an overall decline from 71% to 65% in new opioid prescriptions for cancer patients, as well as a decline from 27% to 24% in prescription refills, researchers found.

But new prescription rates remained stable at 56% for patients in severe pain from metastatic cancer — advanced cancer that’s spread elsewhere in their bodies.

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In addition, opioid prescriptions declined significantly among metastatic cancer patients who reported no pain, falling from more than 61% to about 36%.

“The treatment of cancer-related pain in the setting of the ongoing opioid epidemic is complicated,” Van Metre Baum said.

Results also showed only a slight decline in opioid prescriptions for cancer patients undergoing surgery – from 96% of patients in 2016 to 89% in 2020.

“Most patients continued to receive opioids early in treatment, particularly if undergoing oncological surgery,” researchers wrote.

More investigation is needed to make sure cancer patients are getting the painkillers they need, without unduly increasing their risk of addiction and overdose, researchers said.

“Important questions remain regarding how to best ensure adequate treatment of cancer pain for all patients,” Van Metre Baum said.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more on opioids for cancer pain.

SOURCES: American Cancer Society, news release, Sept 22, 2025; Cancer, October 2025

What This Means For You

Cancer patients in pain should make sure their doctors are aware of their suffering, so they can get the medications they need.