Common Cancer Pain Relief May Actually Increase Cancer Growth
Though morphine has been the gold-standard treatment for postoperative and chronic cancer discomfort for 2 centuries, a growing body of proof is showing that opiate-based painkillers can stimulate the growth and spread of cancer cells. Two new studies advance that debate and demonstrate how shielding lung cancerous cells from opiates reduces cell expansion, invasion and migration in both cell-culture and mouse models.
In laboratory studies, morphine can immediately boost tumor-cell expansion and suppress the immune response. The analysts found that opiates also promote angiogenesis, the expansion of new blood vessels, and decrease barrier function–effects that will exacerbate sicknesses involving vascular leakiness including acute lung injury in experimental models. In a surgical setting, decreased barrier function may make it simpler for growths to invade tissue and spread to distant sites. Increased angiogenesis helps cancers prosper in a new site.
