Abstract
Pain is a well-recognized symptom of cancer in humans, with a prevalence of up to 80%. It can be assumed that stimuli that are painful to humans will also be painful to dogs. Therefore it’s likely that many dogs with cancer will suffer pain. Cancer pain can be caused by
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different mechanisms, one of which is inflammation. Assessment of pain and quality of life (QoL) is important in determining whether the analgesic therapy is sufficient. The first step in treating (cancer)pain is NSAID’s. Specific COX-2 inhibitors are believed to be better in treating pain than non-selective COX-1/COX-2 inhibitors because the lower incidence of adverse events. Robenacoxib is a more selective COX-2 inhibitor than Carprofen and is therefore hypothesized to be more efficient in treating cancer pain. An investigator blinded randomized cross-over trial was set up to test this hypothesis. Patients received either 2 mg/kg Carprofen BID or 1 mg/kg Robenacoxib BID for 28 days and after a washout period of 1 days they received the other drug for 28 days. A translated and adapted version of the Glasgow composite measure pain scale (GPS) form was created as well as a translated and adapted version of the QoL questionnaire developed by Lynch. et. al.. In total 7 patients were entered in the study. At the start of the study and at days 7, 14, 21, 28, 25, 42, 49 and 57 the owner filled out both the GPS form and the QoL questionnaire. The results were analyzed using a paired T-test. The mean GPS score for Carprofen was 2.1±2.8 and the mean GPS score for Robenacoxib was 3.9±4.0. The mean GPS for period 1 was 2.8±3.7 and the mean GPS score for period 2 is 3.8±3.6. The mean QoL score for Carprofen was 90.3±12.8 and the mean GPS score for Robenacoxib was 80.8±16.4. The mean GPS for period 1 was 87.9±15.4 and the mean GPS score for period 2 was 80.7±15.0. Although there is a numerical difference none of these scores differed significantly. Due to the limited number of patients, disqualifying factors in several patients and results that did not differ significantly it could not be determined if Robenacoxib was more efficient in treating cancer pain than Carprofen.
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