Opinion: An opioid shortage? It’s real and could harm cancer patients
Managing symptoms at the end of life are an important part of a person's journey with cancer. Opioids are an essential part of that management.
Most doctors and health policy experts these days are focused on the overabundance of pills fueling the opioid crisis gripping the United States. Cancer doctors like me lie awake at night worrying about the looming shortage of injectable opioids that we need to treat our in-pain and dying patients.
Patients like Tommy Hogan (all of the names in this article have been changed to protect patients’ identities). At age 40, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, even though he never smoked. Despite the best efforts of his medical team, the cancer continued to grow and spread to other parts of his body. Two years later, Tommy was in a home hospice program.
A few days
