Tapentadol PR for patients with advanced cancer pain

Abstract

Background: Cancer pain evolve and change with disease progression. It has both a nociceptive and neuropathic component.Among strong analgesics, which still represent the cornerstone of management in cancer patients with moderate-to-severe chronic pain, tapentadol is a unique chemical entity. Due to its mechanism, we decided to evaluate efficacy and tolerability of tapentadol, a dual -opioid and noradrenergic (MOR-NRI) -central acting analgesic with effectiveness in chronic and mixed pain. The lower contribution of the opioid component also allows a reduction in adverse events μ-related. Moreover Tapentadol has a low risk of drug interactions which can be very useful in patients with complex therapeutic programmes.