Morphine for Cancer: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Morphine is an opiate-based drug--a narcotic that's frequently used for cancer pain relief as part of the palliative care a terminally ill patient often receives in his or her last days. Although some people have an aversion to taking morphine for cancer because it is a narcotic, many providers of health care services, especially those who work in hospice care, promote the acceptance of this and other drugs for the sake of one's quality of life during the end. Indeed, morphine for cancer pain relief is very effective and can greatly increase a patient's level of comfort; but, is that all there is to be considered? More and more people are answering that question in the negative. Why?

Does Morphine Remove All Hope?

I read the personal experience of a relative of a cancer patient. It expressed one man's ill opinion of the use of morphine for cancer pain relief for his sister's palliative care. He recalls, "My sister was alive and talking and fine on Monday night and was dead after (the) hospice nurse gave (her) 6 syringes of morphine at a dosage of one per hour. Her breathing stopped on Wednesday. We know we had a few months (more with her)." This might be considered the "bad" of morphine for cancer.

Many doctors and nurses continue to encourage public acceptance of the use of morphine for cancer pain relief stating that the drug does not negatively affect the patient's breathing unless approximately 3 times the correct dosage is administered. While many will concede to this, others are questioning just how much time morphine might have shaved off of the life of their loved one. The fact that death might be being hastened with the use of morphine has caused a good number of people to question whether there might have been some hope of having more time with their loved one or even whether the drug interferes with any chance to be cured from cancer. The number of people who believe that many types of cancer can be cured using all natural medicines and remedies or a combination of alternative and chemical medicine is steadily growing.

Survivors continue to give their real life testimonies of miraculous recovery from cancer after having been given a death sentence from their doctors and specialists. A good number of those survivors had sunken to the point of needing morphine for cancer pain relief.

Morphine Side Effects: The Ugly

Again, morphine is an opiate and opiates have been found to foster a process in the body known as angiogenesis. The term refers to the growth of new blood vessels and to making them leaky. Angiogenesis is believed to promote and accelerate the spread of tumor cells throughout the body. Morphine side effects, therefore, not only have to do with a patient's breathing, but also with the rapid spread of his or her cancer. Both problems can hasten death and certainly interfere with any hope and measures taken for the long-term survival of a loved one.

Added to this problem is also morphine-induced chronic constipation, which is usually "remedied" by taking more prescription drugs that subject the already weakened cancer patient to a whole new array of side effects, which can be considered indirect morphine side effects.

It is no wonder why the proverb, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" endures. However, the saying, "What you don't know won't harm you" is not true. Knowledge is power and more and more cancer patients are educating themselves, taking as much control of their lives as possible, and living.

Sources:

Julie Steenhuysen
Pain Drug Morphine May Accelerate Cancer Growth
Reuters.com

New-Medical.Net
Morphine for Cancer Pain Relief
news.medical.net (The Medical News)