Palliative care mitigates suffering and pain i.e. physical, psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual with the aid of compassion, empathy, and love which is unconditional. A cancer patient at the end of life care suffering from severe pain needs pain relief. Pain management with the help of opioids is a necessity to improve quality of life.
Cancer patients from the government hospitals of West Bengal, India, are referred to Eastern India Palliative Care, a trust for pain management and palliative care for end of life care. The physician prescribes morphine for pain management. The dose is prescribed as per the need of the individual up to five times a day. The feedback from the management is positive.
The number of cancer patients taking morphine in the year 2021 was 121, in 2022 165, and 2023 was 192. It shows the fact that the need for morphine is on the rise. The life expectancy of the patients taking opioids like morphine was as follows:
- 5 patients survived for 3 years on morphine.
- 25 patients survived for 1 year on morphine.
- 42 patients survived for 6 months.
- 25 patients survived for 3 months.
Different types of cancer patients are referred to EIPC to undergo palliative care and pain management as the last result which is a tragic fact in India. Only less than 4% of patients have access to proper palliative care. The patients are suffering from various types of cancers.
The data analysis concludes that pain management in palliative care is desperately needed and if the health condition of the patient can sustain the absorption of morphine, the quality of life will be sustainable and life expectancy can increase in people living with palliative care needs.
21% of the patients taking morphine increase life expectancy by three months to three years, depending on their immunity, health status, and quality of life. The most important fact is that critically ill cancer patients transition to the afterlife peacefully, pain-free, and with dignity which we all hanker after.
Very good informative article, but on meagre data basis. If the article provides more information about the progressive biochemical, serological reports etc. along with detailed reports of medications on the stage of hospice. Better palliative care can be designed even with or without using opioids for terminal life span with dignity.
More hearth care information along all medical reports including MRI, CT scan , X-ray
reports and other diagnostic reports depending on types cancer are essentially needed for making better palliative care to provide more comfortable life span.
Do you lead us to understand that morphine increases life expectancy in terminally ill patients suffering from cancer? The data that you have to offer does not specify the stage of the disease when morphine was started. And as per your data, the maximum number of patients taking morphine survived only for 6 months!
What was the type & staging of the disease in patients (n=5), who survived for 3 years? And was morphine the only analgesic used? Were the patients on palliative chemotherapy as well?
Thank you Dr Abhijit Dam. As per data 5 persons with ca cervix (2) , ca lymphodima (1), ca breast (1), ca lung (1) are still surviving for more than 3 years. Oncologist refer the patients to palliative care specially pain management means that medical treatment like chemotherapy, radiation are over. Opioids other than morphine can be applied. But the cheapest opioid is morphine. The percentage of survival more than 6 months is low, even it marks the efficacy of pain management. With morphine paracetamol and pan40 are prescribed.