A Patient Treated with Small-dose Strong Opioids Experienced Photophobia, Disturbance of Consciousness, and Miosis

Strong opioids are useful for managing cancer pain, and common side effects include nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, and constipation. Opioid overdose is known to cause respiratory depression and disturbance of consciousness. We observed a 79-year-old man with stage IVB hepatocellular carcinoma with metastasis to the rib and cancer-related pain being treated with strong opioids who, in spite of receiving a small dose and start volume, experienced strong nausea, photophobia, disturbance of consciousness, and miosis. Oxycodone was stopped to manage the strong nausea, and morphine was stopped to manage the photophobia. Furthermore, fentanyl patch was stopped to manage the disturbance of consciousness and miosis. He did not experience respiratory depression. Thus, photophobia, disturbance of consciousness, and miosis can appear as side effects even at small doses of strong opioids. The results reveal two important clinical issues: (1) photophobia can arise as a side effect of strong opioids, and (2) if photophobia, miosis, disturbance of consciousness arise in opioid-treated patients, they require careful monitoring.

Development and Linguistic Validation of the Japanese Version of the Good Death Scale

<p>Good Death Scale (GDS) is a provider assessment scale of quality of dying of terminally ill cancer patients, and its reliability and validity has been confirmed. The aim of this study is translating the GDS into Japanese (GDS-J) according to the standard methods of conducting linguistic validation. In the forward translation, there was a disagreement in the translation of “will” into Japanese translation of “will” of GDS question 3 “Has the patient arranged everything according to his/her own will?” We confirmed linguistic validity in the research team and eventually got approval from the original author in writing and decided on GDS-J. Using the GDS-J, a quality assessment scale for palliative care by provider, it will be possible to evaluate the quality of palliative care to be done by themselves and to be expected to be useful for providing higher-quality palliative care.</p>

Five-Year Survival of Alpha-Fetoprotein-Producing Gastric Cancer with Synchronous Liver Metastasis: A Case Report

Alpha-fetoprotein-Producing gastric cancer is associated with poor prognosis because of frequent liver and lymph node metastasis. We present a case with synchronous liver metastasis who survived for 5 years. A 69-year-old man with upper abdominal pain was referred to our hospital. Gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed a Borrmann II-like tumor in the lower part of the stomach. Computed tomography revealed a tumor in the left lobe of the liver. Serum alpha-fetoprotein levels were markedly increased. We performed distal gastrectomy after administering oral tegafur/gimeracil/oteracil potassium and administered hepatic intra-arterial cisplatin injection. Liver metastasis showed partial response on computed tomography. Despite left hepatic lobectomy, further metastases to the liver and mediastinal lymph nodes became difficult to control. After sorafenib tosylate administration, stabilization of the disease was observed for 4 months. We conclude that hepatic intra-arterial chemotherapy and oral administration of sorafenib tosylate may potentially improve the prognosis in such cases.

A two-case report of successful treatment with pregabalin for refractory chemotherapy-induced hiccups

<b>Purpose</b>: Hiccups are a symptom that often appear in lung cancer patients during medical treatment. Although various drugs and non-pharmacologic therapies are used to treat them, they often are not effective. We report 2 cases of successful treatment for refractory hiccups due to chemotherapy for lung cancer using pregabalin. <b>Case report</b>: Both patients had advanced squamous lung cancer. That in case 1 was treated using chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel, while the case 2 received nedaplatin and irinotecan. Hiccups occurred and became exacerbated during chemotherapy in both, and were considered to be induced by the anticancer drugs. Separate treatments with metoclopramide, chlorpromazine, and gabapentin did not have any effect, whereas immediate improvement was seen after taking pregabalin in both cases. <b>Conclusion</b>: Pregabalin, often used as an adjuvant analgesic, controls excessive neuronal excitement. In the present cases, effective relief of refractory hiccups was seen.