First-line methadone for cancer pain: titration time analysis.

Background: Methadone is a low-cost, strong opioid that is increasingly used as a first-line treatment for pain in palliative care (PC). Its long and unpredictable half-life and slow elimination phase can make titration challenging. Evidence for titration modalities is scarce.

[Interconsultation on palliative care for patients with cancer in a general hospital. Features and opportunity].

The international recommendations point to the early integration of palliative care (PC) in cancer through simultaneous care and training of primary teams. The PC Unit of the Hospital General de Agudos E. Tornú conducts interconsultations for hospitalized patients in the hospital and provides training to the treatment teams.

Methadone as first-line opioid treatment for cancer pain in a developing country palliative care unit.

Purpose: The use of methadone for cancer pain is limited by the need of expertise and close titration due to variable half-life. Yet, it is a helpful palliative strategy in low-resources countries given its long-acting effect at low cost and worth additional study. Our aim was to describe the prescription and outcomes of methadone as a first-line treatment for cancer pain in a tertiary palliative care unit (PCU) in Argentina.

Medical students' palliative care education in a Latin American university: a three-year experience at Austral University in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Background: The School of Medicine of Austral University incorporated palliative care as an elective in undergraduate medicine curriculum during 2010.

Objective: We analyzed the experience and results after 3 years of teaching palliative care. We compared students who chose palliative care as an elective subject (PC Group) with students who did not (Non-PC Group).

Planning cancer control in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Non-communicable diseases, including cancer, are overtaking infectious disease as the leading health-care threat in middle-income and low-income countries. Latin American and Caribbean countries are struggling to respond to increasing morbidity and death from advanced disease. Health ministries and health-care systems in these countries face many challenges caring for patients with advanced cancer: inadequate funding; inequitable distribution of resources and services; inadequate numbers, training, and distribution of health-care personnel and equipment; lack of adequate care for many populations based on socioeconomic, geographic, ethnic, and other factors; and current systems geared toward the needs of wealthy, urban minorities at a cost to the entire population.

Palliative care development in South America: a focus on Argentina.

Many Latin American and Caribbean national health systems mainly focus on disease prevention, prenatal assistance, undernourishment, etc. They still do not have the conditions for developing palliative care (PC). In general, quality of life during the dying process is poor, with fragmented assistance, uncontrolled suffering, poor communication between professionals, patients, and families, and a great burden on family caregivers.

Dexamethasone in addition to metoclopramide for chronic nausea in patients with advanced cancer: a randomized controlled trial.

Chronic nausea occurs in most patients with advanced cancer. This study was done to assess the antiemetic effects of dexamethasone in patients with chronic nausea refractory to metoclopramide. Secondary outcomes included appetite, fatigue, and pain.

Methadone versus morphine as a first-line strong opioid for cancer pain: a randomized, double-blind study.

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness and side effects of methadone and morphine as first-line treatment with opioids for cancer pain.

Patients And Methods: Patients in international palliative care clinics with pain requiring initiation of strong opioids were randomly assigned to receive methadone (7.5 mg orally every 12 hours and 5 mg every 4 hours as needed) or morphine (15 mg sustained release every 12 hours and 5 mg every 4 hours as needed).