['Evidence for opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH) has been shown in animal and human studies, but the clinical implications of this phenomenon remain unclear.', "We examined whether cancer patients taking opioids differ in their sensitivity to a clinical pain stimulus using a local anesthetic injection compared to those not taking opioids. We also evaluated the effect of the opioid dose, duration of opioid therapy, and patients' pain severity and functional status on this clinical pain stimulus.", 'Prospective observational study.', 'University outpatient department for interventional pain management, Republic of Korea.', 'Eighty-two cancer patients including 20 patients not taking opioids (non-opioid group) and 62 taking opioids (opioid group) who were scheduled for an interventional procedure were enrolled in this study. Patients received a standardized subcutaneous injection of lidocaine prior to a full dose of local anesthetic (LA). Before the injection, patients completed the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) questionnaire and were asked to rate their current pain using numeric rating scales. Immediately following the injection, LA injection-specific pain was evaluated using pain intensity, unpleasantness, and behavior pain scores.', 'LA injection-specific pain intensity, unpleasantness, and behavior pain score were significantly higher in the opioid group compared with the non-opioid group (P < 0.001). In the opioid group, these post-injection pain scores were higher in patients taking high-dose opioids than those taking low doses (P < 0.05). In addition, we observed a strong correlation between the baseline BPI pain interference score and the LA injection-specific pain score (r = 0.695, P < 0.001).'] Do high-dose daily opioid administration and poor functional status intensify local anesthetic injection pain in cancer patients?