Breakthrough Pain in Advanced Cancer Patients Followed at Home: A Longitudinal Study

The aim of this study was to longitudinally assess breakthrough pain (BP) in advanced cancer patients who were admitted to home palliative care. One hundred and one consecutive patients who were admitted to one of the two home care programs and were representative of the cancer population followed at home in Italy were included. Patients were excluded only if at admission they were cognitively impaired or too unwell to provide reliable answers to questions regarding data collection. At admission (T(0)), and one month later (T(1)), data were recorded about the pharmacological treatment of background pain and its effectiveness; the presence of BP and its intensity, duration, and number of epi…