In adult cancer people having pain, the use of transdermal buprenorphine led to pain alleviation,  improvement in overall quality of life, and reduction in the severity of other symptoms such as insomnia, constipation and nausea, as elucidated from a study published in The Journal of Clinical Nursing. Wen-Chi Shen et al. aimed to assess impact of transdermal opioid buprenorphine in cancer people.

This multi-site, single-arm study with an observational repeated measures design included cancer people whose pain was earlier stable with opioid analgesic agents and were able to convert to buprenorphine therapy on the basis of clinical judgement. At baseline (before therapy), an assessment of participants was done. Over a four-week therapy period, the quality of life and symptoms were investigated at two and four weeks.

Using European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30, the quality of life was estimated. The generalized estimating equations revealed that people who finished at least one follow-up estimation (N = 80) over four weeks witnessed remarkable improvements in overall quality of life.

The functional status was only found to improve for social functioning. But, the symptom severity considerably reduced for pain, nausea/vomiting, constipation, and insomnia. Hence, transdermal buprenorphine yields satisfactory outcomes in cancer patients with pain.