Breakthrough Cancer Pain

What Is Breakthrough Cancer Pain?

Breakthrough pain is common in people who have cancer. It’s pain that “breaks through” the medicine you take around the clock to relieve your pain.

That’s because chronic pain (which usually lasts more than 3 months) often has 2 parts: persistent and breakthrough. Not all people with chronic pain feel it all day long. Sometimes, chronic pain comes on intermittently throughout the day.

Persistent pain is the pain that lasts all day long. Your healthcare professional may have given you an around-the-clock pain medicine to help you manage it.

Breakthrough pain is a sudden, intense flare of moderate-to-severe pain that usually lasts less than 2 hours. And you can have breakthrough pain even if you’re already taking pain medicine. Breakthrough pain can occur during everyday activities, such as getting out of bed, taking a walk, or coughing. It may occur without a specific cause or reason.

Breakthrough pain can affect each person differently. But it has 4 common characteristics:

  • Comes on fast
  • Unpredictable
  • Lasts on average about 30 minutes
  • Occurs about 4 times a day

IMPORTANT:

Do not use FENTORA unless you are regularly using another opioid pain medicine around-the-clock for your cancer pain and your body is used to these medicines (this means you are opioid tolerant). You can ask your healthcare provider if you are opioid tolerant.

Keep FENTORA in a safe place away from children.

Get emergency help right away if:

  • a child takes FENTORA. FENTORA can cause an overdose and death in any child who takes it.
  • an adult who has not been prescribed FENTORA uses it
  • an adult who is not already taking opioids around-the-clock, uses FENTORA.

These are medical emergencies that can cause death. If possible, try to remove FENTORA from the mouth.

Read this Medication Guide completely before you start using FENTORA, and each time you get a new prescription. There may be new information. This Medication Guide does not take the place of talking to your healthcare provider about your medical condition or your treatment. Share this important information with members of your household and other caregivers.

FENTORA is used to treat breakthrough pain in adult patients with cancer (18 years of age and older) who are regularly using other opioid pain medicines around-the-clock for their constant cancer pain.

The most important information you should know about FENTORA is:

FENTORA can cause life-threatening breathing problems which can lead to death.

  1. Do not use FENTORA if you are not opioid tolerant.
  2. If you stop taking your around-the-clock opioid pain medicine for your cancer pain, you must stop using FENTORA. You may no longer be opioid tolerant. Talk to your healthcare provider about how to treat your pain.
  3. Use FENTORA exactly as prescribed by your healthcare provider.
    • You must not use more than 2 doses of FENTORA for each episode of breakthrough cancer pain.
    • You must wait at least 4 hours before treating a new episode of breakthrough pain with FENTORA. See the Medication Guide section “How should I use FENTORA?” and the Patient Instructions for Use at the end of this Medication Guide for detailed information about how to use FENTORA the right way.
  4. Do not switch from FENTORA to other medicines that contain fentanyl without talking with your healthcare provider. The amount of fentanyl in a dose of FENTORA is not the same as the amount of fentanyl in other medicines that contain fentanyl. Your healthcare provider will prescribe a starting dose of FENTORA that may be different than other fentanyl containing medicines you may have been taking.