Cancer pain and opioids - past, present, and future

Abstract

The Cancer Council Australia and Cancer Institute New South Wales are two Australian organizations that are providing useful resources to support evidence-based prescribing of opioids in cancer pain. Morphine remains the preeminent medication for nociceptive cancer pain. Our understanding of the action of opioids, and how relatively recently these developments are, assists in putting pain and suffering in the context of “total pain.” Increasing understanding of the how pain is understood is leading to new insights with an increasing emphasis on the neuroimmuno- pharmacology of pain.