Impact of pain control with Ultracet(R) on the Quality of Life of cancer patients

Song, Hong Suk; Do, Young Rok; Park, Keon Uk; Sohn, In Ki

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cancer pain impacts the patient and improved pain management increases the quality of life (QOL) for the patient and entire family. One tablet of Ultracet(R) is composed of 37.5 mg of tramadol hydrochloride and 325 mg acetaminophen. Mechanism of action of Ultracet(R) is multiple blocking to pain transmission with 3 synergistic actions. Ultracet(R) shows high performance analgesic efficacy with good tolerability and fast onset in previous studies.
METHODS
From February 2003 to January 2004, we treated 97 patients who had cancer pain. Brief pain inventory, WHO QOL-BREF, and EORTC QLQ-C30 were evaluated before, and after median duration of treatment of 17.9 days with Ultracet(R).
RESULTS
Among 97 patients, male was 59 (61%) and female was 38 (39%). Mean age was 60.3+/-12.0 (range: 25-81 years). Stomach cancer was in 19, lung cancer in 14, lymphoma in 11, unknown primary carcinoma in 8, colorectal cancer in 7, in order of frequency. Pre/post treatment visual analogue scale (VAS) score was 6.43/4.46 (p=0.000). Mild pain in 11 patients and pre/post treatment VAS score of 2.09/1.91 (p=0.875), moderate pain in 33 and 5.21/3.64 (p=0.000), and severe pain in 53 and 8.09/5.51 (p=0.000). Change of QOL after pain management was significant in emotion (65.9/72.1, p=0.012) in functional scales, and pain in symptom scales (62.0/50.9, p=0.000), sleep disturbance (p=0.018), and constipation (p=0.038) in symptom scales. We compared a QOL scales of 3 groups by response to Ultracet(R); improvement (67), no change (17), and aggravation (13). Global health (p=0.000). fatigue (p=0.019), and sleep disturbance (p=0.003) were statistically different among 3 groups.
CONCLUSION
Ultracet(R) is effective in moderate to severe cancer pain and contribute an improvement of quality of life (QOL) of cancer patients.