Scoping Review of Off-Label Topical Analgesia in Palliative, Hospice and Cancer Care: Towards Flexibility in Evidence-Based Medicine.

Purpose: Scoping reviews address the nature of the literature per se rather than inferring evidence-based treatment guidelines. Scoping reviews of the published literature are intended to describe the aggregated nature of the evidence surrounding some agent or intervention, in contrast to systematic reviews that seek when possible to guide clinical practice. We conducted a scoping review to identify reports of potential clinical utility of off-label topical analgesics and adjuvants when FDA-approved treatments have proven inadequate.