Papers of the Week

Opioids are the most effective and widely used treatments for acute and chronic pain in patients with cancer. This review focuses on the impact of opioids and mu-opioid receptors (MORs) on the stages of oncologic metastasis. Studies have shown that opioids can facilitate tumor progression and are related to a poor prognosis in patients with cancer. As the primary receptor for opioids, MORs play a significant role in regulating malignant tumor transformation and are involved in processes, such as proliferation, angiogenesis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and the tumor microenvironment (TME). While clinical trials have investigated the relationship between opioids and patient prognosis, further research is needed to clarify the relationship between opioids, MORs and metastasis.