Episodic Cancer Pain: Patient Reporting, Prevalence, and Clinicodemographic Associations at Initial Cancer Pain Clinic Assessment
Table 1
Demographic and clinical characteristics of study sample according to study-defined episodic pain categories.
Characteristic
All patients
Study-defined episodic cancer pain categoriesa
Breakthrough pain
Incident pain
Total n = 371 (%)
Absent n = 231 (%)
Present n = 140 (%)
value
Absent n = 190 (%)
Present n = 181 (%)
value
Age, mean yrs ± SD
62.1 ± 14.3
62.5 ± 13.6
61.5 ± 15.5
0.494
62.6 ± 14.6
61.7 ± 14.1
0.534
Sex: Female
199 (53.6)
128 (55.4)
71 (50.7)
0.379
104 (54.7)
95 (52.5)
0.664
Primary cancer
Head and neck
92 (24.8)
44 (19.1)
48 (34.3)
0.022
42 (22.1)
50 (27.6)
0.185
Lung
10 (2.7)
5 (2.2)
5 (3.6)
4 (2.1)
6 (3.3)
Gastrointestinal
82 (22.1)
52 (22.5)
30 (21.4)
44 (23.2)
38 (21.0)
Breast
43 (11.6)
31 (13.4)
12 (8.6)
22 (11.6)
21 (11.6)
Genitourinary
79 (21.3)
54 (23.4)
25 (17.9)
36 (19.0)
43 (23.8)
Others
65 (17.5)
45 (19.5)
20 (14.3)
42 (22.1)
23 (12.7)
Metastatic sites
Bone
129 (34.8)
88 (38.1)
41 (29.3)
0.084
63 (33.2)
66 (36.5)
0.504
Lungs
53 (14.3)
35 (15.2)
18 (12.9)
0.540
20 (10.5)
33 (18.2)
0.034
CNS
21 (5.7)
16 (6.9)
5 (3.6)
0.175
6 (3.2)
15 (8.3)
0.033
Liver
58 (15.6)
45 (19.5)
13 (9.3)
0.009
30 (15.8)
28 (15.5)
0.932
Nodal
59 (15.9)
34 (14.7)
25 (17.9)
0.423
32 (16.8)
27 (14.9)
0.612
Soft tissue
47 (12.7)
25 (10.8)
22 (15.7)
0.170
21 (11.1)
26 (14.4)
0.338
Other
106 (32.7)
64 (31.1)
42 (35.6)
0.403
55 (32.5)
51 (32.9)
0.945
Palliative goal
176 (47.4)
97 (42)
79 (56.4)
0.007
83 (43.7)
93 (51.4)
0.138
Cognitive deficit
46 (12.4)
28 (12.1)
18 (12.9)
0.835
25 (13.2)
21 (11.6)
0.649
Functional status (ECOG)
0
120 (32.4)
73 (31.6)
47 (33.6)
0.576
61 (32.1)
59 (32.6)
0.738
1
128 (34.5)
86 (37.2)
42 (30.0)
62 (32.6)
66 (36.5)
2
61 (16.4)
38 (16.5)
23 (16.4)
36 (19.0)
25 (13.8)
3
35 (9.4)
19 (8.2)
16 (11.4)
18 (9.5)
17 (9.4)
4
27 (7.3)
15 (6.5)
12 (8.6)
13 (6.8)
14 (7.7)
Surgeryb
112 (30.2)
71 (30.7)
41 (29.3)
0.768
53 (27.9)
59 (32.6)
0.324
Chemotherapyb
167 (45.0)
109 (47.2)
58 (41.4)
0.280
76 (40.0)
91 (50.3)
0.047
Radiotherapyb
176 (47.4)
110 (47.6)
66 (47.1)
0.929
70 (36.8)
106 (58.6)
<0.001
ECOG = eastern cooperative oncology group; CNS = central nervous system. aBased on both history and Brief Pain Inventory scores; bExposure within the last 30 days.
