Parecoxib: a shift in pain management?

Efficacy and safety of parecoxib and flurbiprofen axetil for perioperative analgesia in children: a network meta-analysis

Objective

The aim of this study was to systematically review the efficacy and safety of parecoxib and flurbiprofen axetil for perioperative analgesia in children through Bayesian network meta-analysis.

Methods

We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Sinomed, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang Data databases on 18 July 2022 to obtain randomized controlled trials comparing perioperative parecoxib or flurbiprofen with placebo or standard treatment for pediatric analgesia. The outcomes were the postoperative pain score and the incidence of adverse events. The Gemtc package of R-4.0.3 and Stata 17.0 were used for Bayesian network meta-analysis.

Results

We retrieved 942 articles and 49 randomized controlled trials involving 3,657 patients who met the inclusion criteria. Compared with children who received placebo treatment, those who received flurbiprofen axetil had lower pain sores at each time point within 24 h postoperatively, and those who received parecoxib had lower pain sores at each time point within 12 h postoperatively. Compared with children who received tramadol treatment, both the children who received flurbiprofen axetil or parecoxib had lower pain scores at 8 h postoperatively. The ranking results demonstrated that flurbiprofen axetil had significant superiority in reducing pain scores at 2, 4, and 12 h postoperatively, and parecoxib had significant superiority in reducing pain scores at 0, 0.5, 1, 6, 8, and 24 h postoperatively. In terms of safety, compared with children who received placebo, those who received flurbiprofen axetil or parecoxib had a lower incidence of total adverse events and postoperative agitation. Compared with tramadol, flurbiprofen axetil and parecoxib both significantly reduced the incidence of total adverse events and postoperative nausea and vomiting. Compared with flurbiprofen axetil or fentanyl, parecoxib significantly reduced the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting. The ranking results showed that parecoxib was advantageous in decreasing the incidence of total adverse events and postoperative nausea and vomiting.

Conclusion

Flurbiprofen axetil was most effective at reducing pain scores at 2, 4, and 12 h postoperatively. Parecoxib had an advantage in terms of reducing pain scores at 0, 0.5, 1, 6, 8, and 24 h postoperatively, as well as the incidence of total adverse events and postoperative nausea and vomiting.

Systematic trial registration

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=348886, PROSPERO (CRD42022348886).

Genetic and Clinical Factors Associated with Opioid Response in Chinese Han Patients with Cancer Pain: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction

Studies have shown that genetic variation and environmental factors are associated with individual differences in therapeutic efficacy and side effects of opioids. However, the focus of these studies has been on a single factor of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or haplotypes, for which results have rarely been validated. For complex traits, such as cancer pain and opioid response, interactions between multiple genetic variation and environmental factors need to be considered to explain the opioid individual differences.

Methods

We conducted an exploratory two-stage cross-sectional study with 1027 Chinese patients who were taking strong opioid medications for their cancer pain, and genotyped 110 SNPs to explore the association of SNPs, haplotypes, gene–gene and gene–environment interactions with opioid dose, pain relief, and opioid-induced constipation.

Results

Due to the failure to meet Benjamini–Hochberg criteria in the discovery stage or to be validated in replication stage, no association was found between SNPs, haplotypes, paired SNP–SNP interactions or multi-dimensional gene–gene interactions and opioid response. However, for gene–environment interactions, optimal models have been constructed in all phenotypes of opioid response.

Conclusions

This study reveals for the first time that construction of multidimensional gene–environment interactions enables better interpretations of the effect of genetic variation and environmental factors on the opioid response in patients with cancer pain.

Trial registration

Chictr.org.cn, identifier, ChiCTR2000033576.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40122-022-00353-5.

Daily subcutaneous parecoxib injection for cancer pain: an open label pilot study

BACKGROUND

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics (NSAIDs) are useful in cancer pain but the specific use of subcutaneous parecoxib has not been previously reported.

OBJECTIVE

This pilot study aimed to establish the efficacy and side effect profile of short-term sequential single daily dose subcutaneous parecoxib sodium in patients with severe cancer bone pain.

METHODS

Nineteen hospitalized patients with advanced cancer and uncontrolled malignant bone pain (9 males, 10 females) received 24 courses of one, two, or three days sequential therapy with 'off-label' daily subcutaneous parecoxib. All patients were receiving opioid therapy; the median baseline daily oral equivalent dose (OED) of morphine was 180 mg. Pain was assessed at baseline, 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. Pain scores as assessed on an 11-point numeric pain rating scale (NPRS), any side effects including subcutaneous site reactions, as well as patient satisfaction rating with analgesia were recorded. A clinically significant decrease in pain scores was defined as a reduction of two or more points on the NPRS.

RESULTS

Median pain score of all patient treatments decreased from 7 to 4.5 at 24 hours (p<0.001) and 4.0 at 48 hours. A response was seen in 17 (71%) of the 24 treatments at 24 hours. There was no difference between median negative change in pain scores in 19 (79%) treatments where pain was either strongly movement related, or in 22 (94%) treatments where local bone tenderness was more pronounced. No major side effects were observed during treatment. One patient died from pulmonary embolism after cessation of concurrent prophylactic low molecular weight heparin prior to staging liver biopsy. Subcutaneous site reactions occurred in 2 (8%) treatments and were mild and self limiting.

CONCLUSIONS

Short-term daily subcutaneous parecoxib injection was effective for malignant bone pain when added to existing analgesic therapy and was well tolerated. Further research is warranted into the short-term use of parecoxib in hospitalized patients with intractable malignant bone pain.

The pharmacokinetics and in vitro/ex vivo cyclooxygenase selectivity of parecoxib and its active metabolite valdecoxib in cats

Parecoxib (PX) is an injectable prodrug of valdecoxib (VX, which is a selective cyclo-oxyganase-2 (COX-2)) inhibitor licensed for humans. The aim of the present study was to evaluate pharmacokinetics and in vitro/ex vivo cyclooxygenase selectivity of PX and VX in cats. In a whole blood in vitro study, PX did not affect either COX enzymes whereas VX revealed a COX-2 selective inhibitory effect in feline whole blood. The IC50 values of VX for COX-2 and COX-1 were 0.45 and 38.6 µM, respectively. Six male cats were treated with 2.5 mg/kg of PX by intramuscular injection. PX was rapidly converted to VX with a relatively short half-life of 0.4 h. VX achieved peak plasma concentration (2.79 ± 1.59 µg/mL) at 7 h following PX injection. The mean residence times for PX and VX were 0.43 ± 0.15 and 5.94 ± 0.88 h, respectively. In the ex vivo study, PX showed a COX-2 inhibition rate of about 70% in samples taken at 1, 2, 4 and 10 h after injection, with a significant difference compared to the control. In contrast, COX-1 was slightly inhibited, ranging from 0.7% to 9.7% of the control inhibition rate without any significant difference for 24 h after PX administration. The preliminary findings of the present research appear promising and encourage further studies to investigate whether PX can be successfully used in feline medicine.

The COX-2 inhibitor parecoxib is neuroprotective but not antiepileptogenic in the pilocarpine model of temporal lobe epilepsy

The enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), which catalyzes the production of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins, is induced in the brain after various insults, thus contributing to brain inflammatory processes involved in the long-term consequences of such insults. Mounting evidence supports that inflammation may contribute to epileptogenesis and neuronal injury developing after brain insults. Anti-inflammatory treatments, such as selective COX-2 inhibitors, may thus constitute a novel approach for anti-epileptogenesis or disease-modification after brain injuries such as head trauma, cerebral ischemia or status epilepticus (SE). However, recent rat experiments with prophylactic administration of two different COX-2 inhibitors after SE resulted in conflicting results. In the present study, we evaluated whether treatment with parecoxib, a pro-drug of the highly potent and selective COX-2 inhibitor valdecoxib, alters the long-term consequences of a pilocarpine-induced SE in rats. Parecoxib was administered twice daily at 10 mg/kg for 18 days following SE. Five weeks after termination of treatment, spontaneous recurrent seizures were recorded by continuous video/EEG monitoring. Prophylactic treatment with parecoxib prevented the SE-induced increase in prostaglandin E(2) and reduced neuronal damage in the hippocampus and piriform cortex. However, the incidence, frequency or duration of spontaneous seizures developing after SE or the behavioral and cognitive alterations associated with epilepsy were not affected by parecoxib. Only the severity of spontaneous seizures was reduced, indicating a disease-modifying effect. These results substantiate that COX-2 contributes to neuronal injury developing after SE, but inhibition of COX-2 is no effective means to modify epileptogenesis.

Comparison of parecoxib and proparacetamol in endoscopic nasal surgery patients

PURPOSE

The aim of the study was to compare the efficacy of parecoxib for postoperative analgesia after endoscopic turbinate and sinus surgery with the prodrug of acetaminophen, proparacetamol.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Fifty American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) physical status I-II patients, receiving functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) and endoscopic turbinectomy, were investigated in a prospective, randomized, double-blind manner. After local infiltration with 1% mepivacaine, patients were randomly allocated to receive intravenous (i.v.) administration of either 40 mg of parecoxib (n=25) or 2 g of proparacetamol (n=25) 15 min before discontinuation of total i.v. anaesthesia with propofol and remifentanil. A blinded observer recorded the incidence and severity of pain at admission to the post anaesthesia care unit (PACU) at 10, 20, and 30 min after PACU admission, and every 1 h thereafter for the first 6 postoperative h.

RESULTS

The area under the curve of VAS (AUC(VAS)) calculated during the study period was 669 (28-1901) cm x min in the proparacetamol group and 635 (26-1413) cm x min in the parecoxib group (p=0.34). Rescue morphine analgesia was required by 14 patients (56%) in the proparacetamol group and 12 patients (48%) in the parecoxib (p >or= 0.05), while mean morphine consumption was 5-3.5mg and 5-2.0 mg in the proparacetamol groups and parecoxib, respectively (p >or= 0.05). No differences in the incidence of side effects were recorded between the 2 groups. Patient satisfaction was similarly high in both groups, and all patients were uneventfully discharged 24 h after surgery.

CONCLUSION

In patients undergoing endoscopic nasal surgery, prior infiltration with local anaesthetics, parecoxib administered before discontinuing general anaesthetic, is not superior to proparacetamol in treating early postoperative pain.