Genetics and Opioids: Towards More Appropriate Prescription in Cancer Pain.

ABSTRACT: Opioids are extensively used in patients with cancer pain; despite their efficacy, several patients can experience ineffective analgesia and/or side effects. Pharmacogenetics is a new approach to drug prescription based on the "personalized-medicine" concept, i.e., the ability of tailoring treatments to each individual's genetic/genomic profile. Pharmacogenetics aims to identify specific genetic variants that influence pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs, better determining their effectiveness/safety profile. Opioid response is a complex scenario, but some gene variants have shown a correlation with pain sensitivity, as well as with opioid metabolism and clinical efficacy/adverse events. Although questions remain unanswered, some of these gene variants may already be used to ide

SUBMITTER: Bugada D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7409018 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature