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Opioid drugs trigger cancer growth and spread
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Opioid drugs used to relieve pain in cancer patients in the postoperative period may stimulate the growth and spread of malignant tumors. This is the conclusion reached by American scientists from the University of Chicago.
"Epidemiologic data and laboratory studies suggest that this type of anesthesia, which doctors widely use in oncology and surgical practice, affects the rates of recurrence, tumor progression and metastasis," said study author Jonathan Moss, MD, professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the University of Chicago.
Opiate-based painkillers such as morphine have been the gold standard for treating postoperative and chronic pain in cancer patients for the past 200 years.
Published research since 2002 suggests that opioids can stimulate the growth and spread of cancer cells, and laboratory data have shown that mu opioid receptors play an important role in tumor progression.
Scientists who analyzed the survival rates of more than 2,000 breast cancer patients have found that women treated for aggressive breast cancers with a single genetic mutation that made them less sensitive to opioids were much more likely to be alive 10 years after their cancer treatment.
After summarizing the results of numerous studies, scientists claim that opioids (narcotic drugs such as morphine or the body's own opioids such as endorphins) appear to have a significant proliferative effect on cancer cells.
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