Pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of twenty-four-hourly Kapanol compared to twelve-hourly MS Contin in the treatment of severe cancer pain.
Twenty-four patients with severe pain related to cancer completed a randomised, double-blind, double-dummy, crossover study examining morphine pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics when the same 24-h morphine dose was administered using two modified release oral morphine formulations; either one dose of Kapanol (a new sustained release polymer coated pellet formulation administered in capsule form, Glaxo Wellcome group of companies) per 24 h, or MS Contin (Purdue Frederick Company, Connecticut, USA) administered at 12-h intervals. The morphine dose was optimised for each patient using an immediate release morphine solution in the lead-in period to provide the most favourable balance between pain relief and side-effects. Patients were then randomly allocated to receive their 24-h morphine dose as either Kapanol or MS Contin in period 1. ⋯ Some of these pharmacokinetic differences (e.g., Cmin and fluctuation in plasma morphine concentration) were surprising given that the dosing interval for Kapanol (24 h) was double that of MS Contin (12 h). There was no significant difference between the Kapanol and MS Contin treatment phases in any of the pharmacodynamic parameters, morphine related side-effects, the percentage of patients taking rescue medication as well as the amount or time to the first dose of rescue analgesia on day 7 in periods 1 and 2, patient or investigator assessments of global efficacy at the end of periods 1 and 2, or patient treatment preference at the end of the study. Once a day Kapanol provided the same degree of pain relief and morphine related side-effects as 12-h MS Contin.