Black and Hispanic cancer patients likely to receive less pain medications, Dana-Farber study says

BOSTON – A local hospital found that not all patients are treated the same in the final stages of cancer.

Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that older Black and Hispanic patients with advanced cancer are less likely to receive opioid medications for pain relief in the last weeks of life compared to white patients, and when they did receive the pain medications, they tended to receive lower doses. 

This was regardless of socioeconomic status. Black men experienced the greatest inequities with respect to both access to opioids and urine drug testing. 

Doctors say everyone should agree that screening should be applied uniformly and cancer patients should have equal access to pain relief at the end of life.

In:
• Boston

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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