Pain and treatment of pain in minority patients with cancer. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Minority Outpatient Pain Study.
BACKGROUND
Clinics that primarily see members of ethnic minority groups have been found to provide inadequate treatment of cancer-related pain. The extent of undertreatment of pain in these patients and the factors that contribute to undertreatment are not known.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the severity of cancer-related pain and the adequacy of prescribed analgesics in minority outpatients with cancer.


METHODS
Prospective clinical study.


METHODS
Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group.


METHODS
281 minority outpatients with recurrent or metastatic cancer.


METHODS
Patients and physicians independently rated severity of pain, pain-related functional impairment, and pain relief obtained by taking analgesic drugs. Analgesic adequacy was determined on the basis of accepted guidelines.


RESULTS
77% of patients reported disease-related pain or took analgesics; 41% of patients reporting pain had severe pain. Sixty-five percent of minority patients did not receive guideline-recommended analgesic prescriptions compared with 50% of non-minority patients (P < 0.001). Hispanic patients in particular reported less pain relief and had less adequate analgesia.


CONCLUSIONS
The awareness that minority patients do not receive adequate pain control and that better assessment of pain is needed may improve control of cancer-related pain in this patient population.
Cleeland
C S
CS
University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA.
Gonin
R
R
Baez
L
L
Loehrer
P
P
Pandya
K J
KJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000150:complications; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000208:ethnology*; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011446:Prospective Studies
D000700:Analgesics