2014 Volume 60 Issue 12 Pages 697-701
With the introduction of the World Health Organization Guidelines (WHO, 1986) and greater awareness of end-of-life care for cancer patients in recent years, the use of morphine has become increasingly more common. Morphine treatment dramatically improves pain control in end-stage cancer patients and enables those patients to spend their final days pain-free at home.
However, patients who require 1,000 mg or more of morphine per day for the control of cancer pain are very rare, and it may be difficult to control the pain and maintain the quality of life (QOL) for these patients.
We describe a 25-year-old woman with right upper jaw spindle cell carcinoma who had long-term survival with successful chemotherapy, but finally required a dose of 9,000 mg or more of morphine via continuous infusion to reduce pain. She hoped to be cared for at home, and was able to remain at home for about 11 months without any significant side effects.
