BACKGROUND:

Morphine is widely used for pain management in cancer patients. Use of heroin, a morphine derivative, is a risk factor for acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

OBJECTIVE:

This study investigates the risk of ACS associated with morphine use by comparing the incidence of ACS in cancer patients treated with and without morphine.

METHODS:

This is a population-based nested case-control study using the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 in Taiwan. In total, 31,384 patients on the database were diagnosed with cancer without prior history of ACS during 1998-2010. In this cohort, 499 patients subsequently developed ACS and 30,885 patients did not. The 499 patients were designated as the ACS group; controls were selected from the remaining 30,885 patients and matched 3:1 to each case for age, sex, year of cancer diagnosis, and index year. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals, and the multivariable model was applied to control for age, sex, and Charlson comorbidity score.

RESULTS:

Cancer patients who received morphine had a 32% higher risk of developing ACS than non-morphine users. This increase in risk was significant when evaluating the overall cancer patients, but non-significant when evaluating any specific cancer type. The risk of ACS increased significantly with increasing morphine dosage (to ≥65 mg/y).

CONCLUSION:

Morphine treatment is associated with a modest increase in risk of ACS in patients with malignancy, but this association displays low significance in specific cancer types.