US National Trends in Opioid-Related Hospitalizations Among Patients With Cancer

Abstract

Opioids are routinely prescribed for cancer-related pain, but little is known about the prevalence of opioid-related hospitalizations among patients with cancer. Opioid addiction among these patients has been estimated to be as high as 7.7%, 1 but our understanding of opioid misuse among patients with cancer is based on small, preliminary studies. thods | We examined trends and risk factors of opioidrelated hospitalizations among patients with cancer between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2014, using the US National Inpatient Sample (NIS) of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). The database contained deidentified patient information and was deemed exempt from institutional review by the Partners Healthcare Human Research Committee. All analysis was conducted between December 2017 and September 2018. Our primary outcome was the number of opioid-related hospitalizations among adults with cancer (18 years old). We identified opioid-related hospitalizations using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) diagnosis codes for heroin poisoning, opioid poisoning, and opioid dependence or abuse in the primary diagnosis field. We identified these patients using ICD-9 codes (140.0-239.9, 258.01-258.03, 789.51), while excluding conditions that rarely require opioids for pain control. We excluded the following: carcinomas in situ, benign neoplasms, hematologic cancers in remission, macroglobulinemia, polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, and nonmelanoma skin cancers.