Abstract 2045: Characterization of inpatient opioid use among pediatric neuroblastoma patients during dinutuximab therapy
Authors: Mehmeti Jola , Choi Jae Eun , Wolfe Ian , Cata Juan , Mody Rajen 
Published: September 2020

Background: Dinutuximab is a chimeric anti-GD-2 (disialoganglioside) antibody approved for use in post-consolidation care of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. GD-2 receptors are also expressed in cerebellar neurons, melanocytes, and peripheral sensory nerve fibers in normal human tissue. Given this pattern of expression, pain is a common and often infusion rate-limiting adverse effect, with greater than 50% of patients experiencing severe (Grade 3 or above) pain. Standard pain management for dinutuximab infusions at our center includes initiation of continuous infusion of opioid patient-controlled analgesia along with demand, loading, and boluses doses. Little to no data exist in the literature to describe opioid use in pediatric patients with acute, episodic pain. Therefore, this study aims to characterize opioid use in this setting.

Methods: Data were collected retrospectively from the electronic medical record under a study protocol approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Michigan, C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Patients were included in the study if they had a clinical diagnosis of metastatic or relapsed high-risk neuroblastoma, received at least one dinutuximab cycle, and were aged 2-14 at the time of admission. Daily amount of opioids, calculated as the oral morphine equivalent daily dose (MEDD), acetaminophen, and gabapentin administered were calculated. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to evaluate within-subjects changes.

Results: The average age of patients was 5.7 years [range 2-14 years]. Four of eleven (36.4%) were female and 7/11 (63.6%) were male. All patients received four days of dinutuximab infusions for an average length of 11.8 hours (SD=2.0) per day. All patients received gabapentin prophylactic treatment and an average of 3387 mg (SD=1275.5). Average total MEDD across all patients was 184.7 mg (SD=137.6) during the inpatient hospitalization. Females (p=0.003) and older patients (p=0.04) had significantly increased daily MEDD as compared to their day 1 intake. All patients experienced a fever spike and received acetaminophen (2915 mg, SD=1737.8) Older patients received higher doses of acetaminophen (p=0.007) Only 1 patient met definition of a chronic opioid user and was discharged with an outpatient opioid prescription. The remaining opioid-naïve patients were discontinued on opioid treatment at the time of discharge.

Conclusions: Pediatric patients on dinutuximab therapy received a high MEDD parenteral opioids dose alongside adjunctive analgesics. Future studies are needed to determine opioid requirement trends across gender, age, and cycles in a larger cohort of patients, as well as to determine the risk of chronic opioid use in this patient population.

Citation Format: Jola Mehmeti, Jae Eun Choi, Ian Wolfe, Juan Cata, Rajen Mody. Characterization of inpatient opioid use among pediatric neuroblastoma patients during dinutuximab therapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 2045.