• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.152-157
• /
• 2018

Opioid aberrant behavior is an emerging problem as strong opioid is increasingly used to alleviate cancer pain in patients with cancer. Although the treatment of opioid addiction and physical dependence for non-cancer pain is well known, few studies have been conducted with cancer patients, particularly in the Korean population. Presented here are ten cases of cancer patients who were physically dependent on strong opioid and successfully treated with a partial mu-opioid receptor agonist, buprenorphine. This is the first report showing the efficacy of transdermal buprenorphine as a treatment for physical dependence on opioid medication in cancer patients.