Hot Topics in Pain Management [August 2016]
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There were about 9,000 patients
with lung cancer received treatment
during 2010 to 2014 in current
database. The selection resulted in a
pool of cancer patients enriched with
those who were diagnosed as Phase
III or Phase IV lung cancer during
their first visit. Because of the
unfortunate late diagnosis, these
patients already suffered from
moderate to severe pain (over level 5
as assessed by NCCN guideline) and
required opioids as pain-killer, but
they had not received surgery,
radiation treatment, chemotherapy,
or additional treatments for cancer-
related syndrome. Totally 282
patients, 78 female and 204 male
patients, were selected for further
analysis.
Collected records have normal
distribution on cholesterol level. The
clinical records of 282 patients were
listed in Additional file 1: Table S1
because of the large file size. The
heights and weights were used to
calculate the body mass indexes
(BMIs). Information on age, serum
total cholesterol level, and opioid
administration were also listed for
further analysis.
After collecting all the necessary
information, the distributions of
patients on age and serum total
cholesterol level were determined.
As indicated in Fig. 1a, most female
patients, 69 out 78 patients, were
between 41 and 75 years old, and
most male patients, 176 out of 204
patients were between 46 and 75
years old.
Most of patients have serum total
cholesterol levels around 4.75
mmol/L, and female patients have
slightly higher average cholesterol
level than male (Fig. 1b). Such
distribution is similar to that of
Chinese population in 2012 [23]. In
summary, 78 female patients have
maximum cholesterol level at 7.66
mmol/L, minimal at 2.66 mmol/L, and