pregabalin and Head-and-Neck-Neoplasms

Our aim was to give an overview of the effectiveness of adjunctive analgesics in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients receiving (chemo-) radiotherapy.. Systematic review.. This systematic review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched for studies concerning "head neck cancer," "adjunctive analgesics," "pain," and "radiotherapy.". Pain outcome, adverse events, and toxicity and other reported outcomes, for example, mucositis, quality of life, depression, etc.. Nine studies were included in our synthesis. Most studies were of low quality and had a high risk of bias on several domains of the Cochrane Collaboration tool. Only two studies comprised high-quality randomized controlled trials in which pregabalin and a doxepin rinse showed their effectiveness for the treatment of neuropathic pain and pain from oral mucositis, respectively, in HNC patients receiving (chemo-) radiotherapy.. More high-quality trials are necessary to provide clear evidence on the effectiveness of adjunctive analgesics in the treatment of HNC (chemo-) radiation-induced pain.

Topics: Analgesics; Head and Neck Neoplasms; Humans; Pregabalin; Quality of Life; Stomatitis

Neuropathic pain is an unavoidable treatment-related adverse event among patients with head and neck cancer who are undergoing radiotherapy. We aimed to test the efficacy and safety of pregabalin versus placebo in the treatment of radiotherapy-related neuropathic pain.. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in four centers in China. Eligible patients with a mean pain intensity score of 4 or more on an 11-point numeric rating scale were randomly assigned to receive either active treatment with a flexible dose of pregabalin or placebo for 16 weeks. The primary efficacy outcome was pain reduction measured on the numeric rating scale.. There were 128 patients who received treatment as randomly assigned. Pain intensity reduction was 2.44 in the pregabalin arm and 1.58 in the placebo arm at week 16, yielding an adjusted mean difference of 0.87 (95% CI, 0.30 to 1.44; P = .003). In the pregabalin arm, 38 patients (59.4%) achieved at least 30% pain relief versus 21 (32.8%) in the placebo arm ( P = .006). Nineteen patients (29.7%) in the pregabalin group and five (7.8%) in the placebo group achieved 50% or greater pain relief ( P = .003). Total scores on the Profile of Mood States-Short Form, pain severity and functional interference of Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form, as well as the physiology and psychology domain of the WHO Quality of Life-BREF all were reduced significantly at week 16 in patients who received pregabalin compared with those who received placebo. There was no significant difference ( P = .29) in the incidence of experiencing at least one adverse event in the pregabalin arm (n = 35; 54.7%) versus the placebo arm (n = 29; 45.3%).. Patients treated with pregabalin with radiotherapy-related neuropathic pain had greater pain alleviation, better mood states, and higher quality of life compared with patients in the placebo group, with a good tolerability.

Topics: Analgesics; Double-Blind Method; Female; Head and Neck Neoplasms; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neuralgia; Pregabalin; Radiation Injuries

Topics: Analgesics; Head and Neck Neoplasms; Humans; Neuralgia; Pregabalin